A Ghost's Conviction
by Shedauwz
Summary: Set in a world where money equals power, Natsu Dragneel, a new lieutenant in New Fiore's military, is part of Ghost squad, an elite Ryuukishi unit. Ghost gets sent on a mission where things don't go as initially planned and end up being a total disaster that changes the young Ryuukishi's fate and creates a vengeful spirit. A lone Ghost.
1. The new Lieutenant

_A huge thanks to **Roxas.97** for betaing this!**  
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_**A Ghost's Conviction**_

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_**Chapter one: The new Lieutenant**_

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The reek of alcohol, cigarettes, sweat and something extremely lewd covered a dimly lit room. It was a mess, empty bottles lying everywhere, playing cards littered the floor, clothes draped around the place. A white cover was placed on the ground and under it a figure was laying, probably asleep. A bare foot dangling from the piece of cloth, twitching slightly when something beside the cover started ringing.

The person under the cover groaned and moved to his side. He didn't know who was calling him nor did he care. He had too much of a hangover to even be bothered. After a few minutes the ringing stopped and the individual that was trying his best to get a few more hours of shut-eye sighed in satisfaction.

To his displeasure, the phone started ringing again. He growled and started moving. A hand shot out of the covers and searched for a phone. It tapped the ground in its hunt until it finally caught its prey and pulled it towards under the cover. Without even trying to see where he was pressing he just pushed his palm against the touch-pad of the phone and put it against his ear, "What do ya want, I'm sleeping over here." He complained and a sigh could be heard from the other end of the line.

"You're still sleeping? Damn, I thought you'd wake up sooner or later and I just left for work." The person said, making the other behind the cover smirk slightly.

"Gray?" He coughed quietly from the bitter taste of alcohol in his throat, "Thanks for that. I still have a shitty hangover though." He yawned, "What the hell happened yesterday?"

Gray's chuckle was heard, "I haven't seen you this drunk since high-school. Check to your side." He said and the person lying on the ground could almost see Gray's grin. Sighing, he let his left hand dangle to his side until he felt something warm. It peaked his curiosity and he continued… until he grasped something soft, erecting a girlish moan of pure ecstasy from under the cover.

As soon as the moan reverberated through the room a figure shot out from under the cover and sat up. He was a man in his twenties, had pink hair that was spiky in every direction, although his bedhead didn't even matter since it was like that most of the time. He had pointy onyx-black eyes and a muscular build. A blush covered the man's face as he glanced to his side and saw that his hand had grabbed a breast… a _large_ breast. Carefully moving his appendage away so he didn't wake up the woman, he examined her and almost paled. Pale skin, long dark-purple hair and brown eyes. '_I'm so dead._'

He placed his phone against his right ear shakily and could hear Gray's laughter echoing through the receiver, "Gray, mind explaining why the _fuck_ am I lying on the _ground_ with _Major Milkovich… _who is _butt naked_?" He wanted to shout, he really did, but he was extremely afraid of this woman's fury once she woke up. If she actually did sleep with him then she probably didn't remember anything from last night, same as him.

"Major Milkovich? Really, Natsu? Shouldn't you be calling her Ultear-chan by now or something?" Gray laughed again and the man, now known as Natsu, had to suppress a groan. This wasn't the time for his shitty jokes.

"I ain't joking, jackass. If she wakes up I'm fucking dead." He growled quietly, which only increased Gray's laughter.

The man on the other end of the line coughed, "H-holy shit, I thought I was about to die there for a second…" He coughed again, "Why are you on the ground? Beats me. You were so drunk last night you probably didn't care to find a decent spot to sleep in. Neither of you did." Gray chuckled and Natsu's eyes widened.

"So you're telling me we really did… uh… _sleep _together?" He asked, although he already knew the answer to that, if both of them lying naked and close to each other was any indication, that is, "Okay, don't answer that. Was she as smashed as I was?"

"Nope." Gray said and it was obvious that he was grinning… more obvious was Natsu's completely astounded face.

"Wait… what? Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?" '_There is absolutely no fucking way._'

"Well… she was drunk, but not as much as you. Hell, it's probably impossible to get as drunk as you were yesterday without dying." He said and Natsu yawned. Carefully, he stood up while trying not to wake up the naked beauty beside him. He couldn't lie, she was smoking hot, but this was the Major he's talking about. The Major that kicked his ass if he ever did anything wrong or destroyed too much shit during missions. Hell, even simple fights against other pilots ended up with him taking Ultear's boot up his ass… not literally, of course.

Just as he stood up he felt light-headed and dizzy. The hangover did take its toll on him. Inhaling the scent of Gray's apartment, he had to keep himself from puking. Focusing on the phone, he spoke, "What the fuck did we celebrate yesterday anyway? This place looks like something from a shitty disaster movie."

Gray laughed again, "What? You don't remember? Come over to HQ and you'll find out." Gray said and hung up, almost making Natsu throw his phone across the room. Yawning again, he looked around the room to find some form of underwear… which he did, in the fridge. Why was his underwear in the fridge? He had no clue, although it did make him facepalm. Sliding his boxers on, he searched for something to drink in the fridge since it almost felt like ferrets were doing anal in his throat. He pushed an empty can of beer away and found some soda. Taking it and forcefully opening it he jugged almost half of it down in one go before coughing from the bubbles invading his already sensitive throat. He punched his chest a few times before the tingling stopped and he sighed.

Glancing to the side, he saw his clothing scattered around the bathroom. His boxers were in the fridge, his clothes were in the bathroom... and his shoes were in a litter box. What the hell did they do last night? '_Scratch that, I think I don't want to know_.' He thought as he put his clothes on. He had the standard military issued officer clothing, white shoes, white pants and a white jacket under which was his red tee with a dragon designed on his chest.

The white jacket had an emblem of a dragon on the left arm's bicep with the words 'Ryuukishi' embedded below it, indicating his regiment, _Dragon Knight_. On the right side of the jacket's chest was a grey vertical symbol, indicating the rank of First Lieutenant, which he still wasn't quite aware of. On the lower side of the left side of his chest, just below his ranking insignia, was his name. Natsu Dragneel.

Zipping up his jacket, Natsu glanced towards where the Major was lying, still fast asleep. He sighed and smirked at the image. A slight tint of red plastering itself on his cheeks at the sight of her exposed body. Gulping down, he walked towards her and hesitantly picked her up bridal style. Carefully so she doesn't wake up, he carried her to a nearby sofa and placed the woman on it gently, making sure to cover her exposed body with the white cover.

Making his way towards the exit of the room and opening the door, he spared one last glance towards the snoring woman and smiled fondly. He couldn't lie, he did like her to a degree… it was just that she was _unapproachable_. Sure, they slept together, big deal; to her it was probably the same as blowing off steam after a hard day of kicking some unlucky Private's ass. He wasn't calling her a whore though, oh God no.

Sighing, he stepped forward and closed the door behind him. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he made his way through the long white corridor. Glancing at the many doors along it with personnel names etched at their base, Natsu sighed for the umpteenth time this morning. Why the hell was his place so far from Gray's? Ever since the guy got promoted to First Lieutenant he's been living in the officer quarters and was boasting about it non-stop. The food was better, the accommodations were _way _better (as Natsu had seen himself) and, above all, they had room service. Room service! What the pinkette wouldn't give for someone getting his lunch to him or cleaning his apartment, a chore he hated with all his being.

Walking through the corridor and yawning whole heartedly, he noticed a few officers standing near an opened door to one of the many apartments. He was planning to just stroll by, ignoring them (since he hated all of those stupid rules the military had) but he was surprised when all three of them stood at attention and saluted him. He quirked an eyebrow and returned his salute lazily, "At ease." He said and kept walking.

A thought struck him. Why did they salute him? They were Warrant Officers and he was only a Sergeant… this didn't make sense. Lower ranking soldiers should salute higher ranking ones first, not the other way around. Scratching his temple, he groaned over dramatically and chose to ignore it. His head was pounding too much for his own good. Natsu swore to himself he would never drink again, '_Oh if only I'd get a jewel for every time I've said that… I'd be loaded by now._' He thought to himself with a sweatdrop and continued on his path towards the elevator leading to HQ.

The apartment complex for soldiers was basically the same building as HQ. The upper quarters were reserved for higher ranking officers such as Warrant Officers and above. There was a top suite for Majors and above. The mid-section was for Sergeant Majors and below, meaning Natsu's apartment was a few floors down. The lower section was the mess hall and barracks, a shooting range and an armory with the basic weapons and needs of foot soldiers. A standard military headquarters. Underground, however, were the Ryuukishi headquarters with its own shooting range and armory plus a testing field made to try out newly made experimental weapons.

The Ryuukishi had many different weapons that a foot soldier would kill for. They had state of the art technology, safer environments and, above all, a higher pay grade. But the Knights' lives weren't as easy as one might think. With a higher rank and better technology come better, and harder, missions. If there was a mission which the Special Forces couldn't handle or was considered top secret or of high importance it was immediately handed to the Ryuukishi. Sometimes Natsu wondered why the hell he even bothered to join the Ryuukishi in the first place. Sure, he was an astounding pilot, one of the best, he heard, but the work that he had to do sometimes made him want to up and leave. Settle in a house somewhere in a remote place in Area 7 or 8 and just take it easy, live a careless life where he didn't have to worry about a plasma imbued bullet piercing the hull of his **_Sanshōo 2(Salamander 2)_**.

He was awoken from his thoughts when he saw a blonde girl running his way while shouting his name. She wore the same military outfit he did, only that instead of pants it had a skirt that ended mid-thigh and boots that went to the middle of her shin, "Good morning Lt." She greeted and smiled towards him.

"Mornin' Mavis." He yawned and entered the elevator. She followed before pressing one of the many buttons.

"You stink." She said while scratching the side of her nose.

Natsu groaned, "Please, don't ask…" He glanced at her curiously, "And hey, is that anyway to talk to your… wait, what did you call me?" the pinkette asked dumbfounded.

The girl facepalmed, "Did you get drunk last night again? You were promoted to First Lieutenant, don't you remember?"

Natsu deflated. Seriously? Now he remembered why they were drinking in the first place. After a mission in the wasteland that had gone terribly wrong due to rebel involvement Natsu's team was pinned down with almost all of their Mechs destroyed. Reinforcements with evac were about fifty klicks away which meant they had to fend for themselves. Add to the fact that they had almost no cover and were surrounded from all sides by a dozen or so hostile Mechs.

Natsu was one of the lucky ones and wasn't caught in the EMP blast that short circuited most of their fighters. He fought valiantly, or so the council said, and was able to hold out until New Fiore's reinforcements arrived. Using an experimental weapon that he carried with him as a last resort. The weapon, essentially being an Etherion powered sword, gave him an extreme boost to his Sanshōo 2 and he was able to render most of the rebel Mechs useless. That is, until the weapon overloaded and exploded in his face, causing his Mech to lose an arm and almost shatter into pieces in general.

After all that, the enemy didn't have enough soldiers to keep fighting and the arrival of New Fiore's reinforcements intimidated them to the point that they had to retreat.

He still didn't get it though. This was the first time the council promoted someone for a mission that almost ended in failure; much less from Sarge to first Lieutenant. If he wanted to be promoted it wasn't from something like this. He almost died. In his eyes, he should've been demoted. This shouldn't be something that required a damned promotion!

The blonde girl sighed, "Don't tell me you're still beating yourself up over what happened?"

"I ain't beating myself up, but this just isn't right." He complained, "I wasn't able to control that stupid sword and I almost got killed along with my unit. Why the hell would they promote me for something like that, huh? It just doesn't make any sense!"

The blonde scratched her temple in annoyance, "Look, you were promoted because you _saved _your unit. It doesn't matter how or that the Sanshōo 2 was almost destroyed. You protected them; you risked your own life by using an experimental weapon to save your men and the mission." Noticing that his expression softened she smiled, "And I think the test itself added to it as well."

Natsu quirked an eyebrow, "What do you mean? What test?" He asked as the lift passed the mess hall.

"The Etherion weapons need testing in the field but the higher ups can't afford to lose a Ryuukishi because of a weapon malfunction. I guess, in a way, they are grateful to you for using it and showing what it can do." Mavis explained.

The man sighed, "So I guess the Sanshōo's been stripped?"

She shook her head, "On the contrary, it has already been repaired. The only thing they did was take your vision logs to analyze the Etherion weapon's capabilities. I think this was a gift from the council as well."

Natsu ruffled his hair, "Weird."

The girl quirked an eyebrow, "What is?"

"They never do stuff like that out of the goodness of their hearts, no matter what you've done, you know this. Hell, even if I'd have killed two hundred rebels and destroyed Magnolia they wouldn't give me shit. Their so called 'generosity' is suspicious." He said and exited the elevator once it reached underground levels.

Mavis sighed, "You're being paranoid."

"Whatever." He said and motioned for her to come with him with a wave of his hand.

On the way to his squad's barracks he saw many other Ryuukishi and higher up personnel. All of them saluting him and he was returning the gesture. They seemed… different. There were two factors to consider as to why this change had occurred. First: his mission. They were probably the same as the council, thinking that he did a great job by almost failing a mission. Second: there really was something off about this whole situation.

Sighing, he turned a corner and finally reached his destination. Large metallic double doors with a touchpad to their side. Above the door it read: 'Ghost.' Pressing his thumb against the pad, he hummed while it scanned the finger and glowed a green affirmative before the doors opened. He entered the room, closely followed by Mavis, where three men sat. They all perked up and saluted the just arrived pinkette.

"At ease, fellas." Natsu waved with his hand and sat down on a chair. The three pulling up chairs as well and sitting near him around a table. They were all muscular figures of average height. One of them had blond, spiky hair, styled in almost the same way as Natsu's, and blue eyes. Sting Eucliffe. Another was of black hair that framed his face with a large bang covering his right eye. Combined with red eyes, he looked like a really intimidating figure. Rogue Cheney. The third one was a lean figure and had his own look, so to speak. He had spiky hair, the top of it spiky black while the bottom was a longer and straighter white, a set of five maroon beads on the right strand of his hair. The same as with Rogue, this individual had red eyes which, combined with his hair, made him look even scarier than the former. Midnight. They just called him that since no one bothered to know his real name. The man, not minding the nickname, never bothered to give his real name either.

"Congrats on the promotion Sarge! Oh… you're a Lt. now, I guess." Sting chuckled, making Natsu groan.

"Don't start, Sting, you know I hate all those formalities that come with rank." The pinkette complained.

"But aren't the accommodations worth it?" The blond asked.

"Hell yeah they are, especially the room service!" He yelled out with his fist in the air, making Mavis and Sting chuckle while the other two sighed.

"So what's the problem?" Rogue couldn't help but ask.

Natsu scratched his temple, trying to think of a way to respond, "It's uncalled for." He said, making the black-haired man quirk an eyebrow, "Look, they promoted me for a mission gone wrong. It says clearly in the logs that I was the one who ordered a change in route. And what happened next? We were ambushed by over a dozen wasteland fuckers and almost got killed."

"But we didn't." Midnight added.

"Yeah, we didn't, but we almost did. If it wasn't for that Etherion weapon we would've died because of the bad call I made." Natsu said and sighed while leaning back in his chair.

"Don't worry about it Lt." Sting said, "We're alive, aren't we? Save moping for later and let's go have a drink!" He said and Natsu's face went green. He honestly almost puked. All three of Ghost squad quirked an eyebrow and looked at Mavis, "What's wrong with him, Vice?" The blond man inquired.

Mavis Vermillion was known throughout New Fiore as the second in command of Ghost squad, which meant being second in command to Natsu Dragneel, an impulsive and young soldier who had just become a lieutenant. But to Ghost, she was known as Vice, A.K.A. Vice-Commander, "He over celebrated last night, didn't you, Lt.? I wonder if the Major's still at Gray's place." She said and Natsu jumped out of his seat.

"H-h-h-how did you know?" Natsu almost shouted while holding his mouth, his face still green.

"So she did go to your place." The girl grinned and Natsu's face visibly paled. He fell for it. He _fucking _fell for it, "So what happened?"

"Nothing happened!" Natsu defended.

Sting bumped Rogue's arm with his elbow, "The hell are those two talking about?"

"No idea." The black-haired man shrugged, "I wonder what the Major's got to do with this though."

"How the hell did you know she was with us?!" Natsu shouted. She already knew Ultear was with them so what was the point of hiding it?

"I saw her going to Gray's place's direction and had a hunch she was going to you guys, guess I was right." Mavis grinned, "So… did you do her?"

"What the hell, Vice! Shut up!" Natsu shouted, making the blonde girl laugh.

Before the conversation could progress any further a voice boomed through their comms, "Ghost, report to Command Center, I repeat, Ghost, report to Command Center."

Groaning, Natsu turned to Mavis, "I knew something was up."

"Just go already, lover-boy." The blonde girl said with a chuckle as Natsu stared at her blankly. He was definitely going to get back at her for this.

"Oh, by the way," Midnight interrupted, "Congrats on becoming Second Lieutenant, Vice." He said and Natsu's jaw fell.

"What the hell, since when?" He roared.

"The same time you got your promotion." She pouted, "Are you telling me you didn't know?"

"Why the hell should I care?" The pinkette stuck out his tongue, "And what's up with the higher ups anyways? Throwing random promotions left and right…"

"It's to keep me as your second in command." She explained, "They know Ghost squad works the best with its members the way they are and that's why they bumped me up a rank… or a few… so I can stay as your Vice."

"That didn't make any sense." Natsu said and exited the room, closely followed by the four.

Walking through the many underground corridors, Natsu had a slight flashback to the events that occurred yesterday…

_"C'mon Gray, pass me a beer!" Natsu shouted; his face red from drinking too much alcohol and he was wavering while standing._

_"Don't you think you've had enough?" Gray hiccupped mid-sentence._

_"No!" The pinkette shouted and took the can of beer from the brunette forcefully. He had lost count of how many he drank and he didn't care even If he'd drink the whole supply of beer Crocus could offer. They were supposed to be drinking in celebration, but he was drinking to down the sorrow of the new rank he got. What, you think he wasn't happy? He was ecstatic. It was just the thought of how much work he'd have to do that weighed all of the happiness down._

_There were only two of them now, but about an hour ago there were more. Many of Gray's friends came to congratulate Natsu and drink to him, but none of them could drink the way the two did and left before they got too drunk._

_At about 2300 there was a sharp knock on the door, "Open this door, now!"_

_"Eh?" Natsu hiccupped and glanced at the door, "Go away! We're drinkin' 'ere!"_

_"I said open the door, now!" The voice boomed again as more knocks shook the door._

_"Oi oi, I think that's the Major!" Gray warned and shivered slightly._

_Natsu stared at him blankly. Taking another large gulp of beer and finishing half the can he grinned like an idiot,"I got an idea." He said and hiccupped. Gray's face visibly paled at the revelation. Natsu's ideas were _never_ good. The brunette tried to stop him but tripped on the same empty can Natsu threw away and fell face-first on the floor._

_Natsu wobbled to the door, "Aye, I can hear ya, wait a sec, I'm openin' the door." He said and gripped the handle, almost falling to his side in the process. Opening it, he was met with the glare of a certain dark-purple haired pissed off Major._

_"What is the meaning of this racket!? And why are you drunk!? Expl…" She was cut short when the pinkette's lips crashed against her own. Her eyes widened and a blush covered her face. His tongue demanded entrance and she was unable to deny it. The taste of alcohol seeped through his saliva and she almost coughed from the sheer amount of it._

_She tried pushing him away but his hands almost instinctively grabbed hers and firmly kept them on her back. He held her arms with one of his own while his other hand ended up on her rear. She squealed at the contact before she was pulled into the room and the door closed with a thud._

Natsu placed his hand against his mouth. He was fucked. He was, literally, fucked. How the hell was he supposed to look the Major in the eyes when he practically forced himself on her? Sighing, he continued to the Command Center where he saw Gray leaning on a wall and grinning at him.

"So… how was she?" He asked, making Natsu groan and facepalm.

"Don't start, please." The pinkette said, making Mavis chuckle and the three others raise an eyebrow.

"Now I'm really curious." Rogue remarked as they entered the center. It was a large room with a long round table in the middle. Natsu sat on a chair next to it, to his right sat Gray and to his left sat Mavis. Rogue, Sting and Midnight sat to Mavis's left.

At the head of the table sat an older man. Massive in build, he had long light hair which was tidily gathered at the back of his head, a thick beard and a mustache covered the lower part of the man's face. He wore the same standard military outfit which sides and chest panels were filled to the brim with medals and commendations. Clearly a show of his impressive track record as a soldier, Ryuukishi and commander.

"General Jiemma." Natsu saluted and the five others followed. Jiemma nodded and passed them an envelope.

"Ghost, you have another mission." He said, making Natsu quirk an eyebrow. He opened the envelope and read the contents.

Eyes narrowing, the man glanced at the General, "A long-term mission, sir?"

"That is correct." He nodded, "Our scouts have discovered an abandoned Etherion dig site, still intact. We suspect it is rebel owned, based on the reports of unusual movement of civilians around that area."

"Civilians, sir?" Midnight asked, eyes locked at the older man.

"A city is located nearby; population estimate is give or take five hundred." Jiemma explained.

"Are they hostile?" Natsu asked.

"We are not sure. No reports have come in of hostile behavior against our scouts from the inhabitants of the city." He said.

"You are to take back the mining base and secure it for our excavation team to set up. Once that is done we will requisition reinforcements to aid you in protecting the science team until they finish." The older man ordered.

Natsu bit his lip, '_We're stealing from those people again. Isn't it enough that they have to live in the wastes without any support?_' he didn't like it. The military spat nonsense about how they were supposed to fight against the rebellion, yet it was their fault to begin with that the rebellion even needed to be created. Everyone in the military knew this yet no one bothered to lift up their lazy asses to do anything about it.

He looked up from the paper in his hands and focused on the General, "Rules of engagement, sir?"

"Kill any hostiles on sight. Keep civilians from entering the area of the mining base. If anyone is to breach the area they are considered hostile." He said with a tone of finality, making the pinkette sigh.

Great, another slaughter. Just what he needed.

Sighing, he placed the piece of paper back in the envelope and threw it to the General, "When do we mobilize?"

"1200." Jiemma said and took the envelope. He stood up and made his way to the exit of the room. Before exiting, he saluted and the five, except Natsu, returned the gesture

Natsu glanced at his watch and frowned. It was 1130. This was grand; he had one hell of a hangover and was supposed to lead his team into a battlefield. The place was probably infested by rebels and they have, no doubt, set up a defensive perimeter. After they take it they're supposed to protect the science team, for about five days, he guessed, judging by the amount of time those nerds took to excavate important shit, and escort them back to New Fiore.

Scratching the back of his head, he groaned over dramatically before turning to his squad, "Ghost, gear up and meet me at the hangar in 15." He ordered.

All three of them grinned and saluted, "Alright!" They said and swiftly left the room.

"What about me, Lt.?" Mavis asked, watching the new lieutenant curiously.

"Stay here and make sure Intel doesn't fuck up. I don't want to step on five fucking hundred rebels just because those guys had a stick up their ass and thought it would be fun to watch us die." He said, making her chuckle before she nodded and left the room.

"This is just fucking great. I knew something was off with the way the guys were all 'I'm so nice so I'll salute you' bullshit." Natsu complained before he slumped down into one of the many chairs littering the room.

Gray chuckled, "Look on the bright side, you won't have to talk to the Major for a while."

The pinkette glanced at his friend and rolled his eyes, "You know, I think I'd rather let her beat me up than go on another slaughter fest." Natsu said, effectively making the brunette frown.

"Oi, don't talk about shit like that. If they think you're going against the council they'll put you in prison." He said.

Natsu groaned, "What the hell? Can't a guy even express his thoughts for once?" He said, "Look, you and I both know what the fuck made the guys over the wall create that damned rebellion in the first place. Us. Fucking Crocus. And now we're stealing from them. I bet if the council wanted peace the rebels would accept and this meaningless bullshit would stop."

"You know it's not that easy." Gray sighed, "The rebels probably wouldn't even believe a word the council would say."

"That still doesn't mean I should like killing innocent people to satisfy those greedy pigs' needs." He complained.

Gray's eyes narrowed as he stood up, "Why the fuck did you even join the military if you keep whining because of something like this?" Natsu looked at him, surprise etched on his face before it was replaced with anger, "Just go and do your damned mission already." The brunette growled

"You want to know why I joined this stupid military? To find the fucker that orchestrated the destruction of my home, that's why! Or are you telling me you forgot, huh?" Natsu almost screamed at his face and the brunette instantly regretted what he had said. In the past, almost twenty years ago, New Fiore was larger, a lot larger. It spanned throughout almost half the continent and prospered more than ever. Today New Fiore has Areas spanning from one to nine. All those years ago it had almost twenty, until the rebels formed. From an unknown source they had gotten state of the art Mechs that plowed through the military's defenses and crushed almost half of New Fiore. The military managed to push the exhausted rebels back when they reached Crocus. Many civilians died and barely any escaped. Renovation works are still happening to this day.

One of those areas, Area 15, was Natsu's home. It was one of the first to be destroyed and it probably got the worst of it. Out of almost ten thousand people only a handful remained. Natsu was one of the lucky ones. He was about five years old when the rebels advanced and by sheer luck his parents managed to sneak him onto one of the retreating military's armored vehicles. To this day Natsu seeks revenge. Not on the rebellion as a whole, but on the person who orchestrated everything. He knew it had to be someone on the inside since the Mechs they used all those years ago weren't something you'd find in rebel hands.

His palms clenched and his hands shaking, he punched a wall with the side of his fist before exiting the room. Damn Gray for worsening his mood even more. Damn him.

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_Yup, a new story. Why? Because I wanted to write something new._

_Soooo... what'd you think? Leave your feedback in the review section please! Oh! And I haven't decided on a pairing yet. Suggestions? Erza is a no though, sorry._


	2. Departure

_**IMPORTANT! READ PLEASE!: **__Okay, I know this story doesn't have many followers and that probably only a few people will actually read this, but can you, whoever's reading this, do me a favor? There's an awesome story up by an extremely awesome author, my beta, **Roxas.97** The story's called **Venomous Reality**. Can you guys check the story out and give the guy some feedback? He's getting little to no reviews cause of the pairing and so it's not popular, but believe me when I say the story itself is friggin' awesome. I ain't joking._

_I hope I got my point across.  
_

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_A huge thanks to **Roxas.97** for betaing this!_

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_**A Ghost's Conviction **  
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_**Chapter two: Departure**  
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_A pink haired teen panted as he held two wooden kendo swords shakily. He groaned when he noticed a nasty scratch on his left shoulder and glared at the white haired man who openly grinned at his direction, a single wooden kendo sword in his hand. He stood his ground firmly as his pointy black eyes stared at the pinkette._

_"What's wrong, Natsu? Already done?" The man said mockingly, making the teen let out an almost animalistic growl._

_"Shut your trap, Lyon-nii!" Natsu shouted and charged the other with a battle cry. He swung both of his kendo swords at every direction, trying his best to hit the man._

_Lyon laughed as he blocked Natsu's attacks. Some of them he dodged, some of them he blocked with either his sword or the armguards that went from his wrists to his elbows. He grinned as he noticed an opening when Natsu had to step back slightly after Lyon pushed him away while blocking one of his attacks and he kicked Natsu's stomach, effectively making the pinkette stagger. Creating an opening with his last attack, the white-haired man swiped at the pinkette's head, sending him flying a few meters back and making him roll on the floor._

_"Too easy, Natsu. Is that really all you got?" Lyon mocked with a laugh, his eyes widening slightly when he noticed the pinkette stand up shakily on his feet._

_"As if." Natsu said weakly as he glared holes at the other. He breathed in before steeling himself. He spread his legs as he got into a focused combat stance, his body's right side slightly turned to the side, his left arm was set in a low position, blade pointing forwards, while his right arm was higher and slightly backwards. A strand of hair covered his left eye while his right one glared daggers at his enemy._

_Noticing the change of expression in Natsu's face, Lyon couldn't help but grin. Finally he was taking this seriously. Lyon got into his own fighting stance, his legs bent and spread, his left arm placed forward with his armguard, acting like a shield, while his right hand was set slightly back yet his blade was still pointing directly at Natsu, ready for a stabbing motion._

_"Bring it." He said and motioned for Natsu to attack with the palm of his left hand. Taking this as his signal, Natsu charged, now faster than before, and jumped straight at the white-haired, swinging both of his swords at him in a vertical motion._

_"Too slow!" Lyon shouted and blocked the attack with his armguard. He lunged forward with his own sword, intent on stabbing the pinkette, but he was surprised when Natsu used his armguard as a sort of stepping stone and pushed himself off. Lyon's mid-section completely open, Natsu kicked off of the white-haired man's stomach and let himself fly backward a few feet._

_The white-haired man gasped slightly from the hit but was given no time to recover. As soon as Natsu landed he lunged again, this time in a slightly crouched position which almost made it look like he was hovering through the air as his steps only barely touched the ground. In a few swift steps the pinkette was in front of Lyon and slashed in an X pattern upwards._

_The white-haired man anticipated this and swung his wooden sword downward, meeting Natsu's wooden blades __as a tug of war ensued. Both of them tried to overpower the other but, in the end, Natsu had the advantage since he could use his feet to push himself forward. With as much strength as the pinkette could muster he used his legs to propel himself and pushed Lyon's sword away. Using this opening while Lyon tried to keep himself on his feet, Natsu stabbed his stomach multiple times, making the white-haired stagger a few feet back._

_Lyon coughed slightly before steeling himself and glancing at the confident pinkette with a smile on his face, "It seems you have been training. Let's see how well your defense fares!" He shouted and started running towards Natsu._

_The pinkette, feeling exhausted from receiving multiple hits and dishing out many strong attacks of his own as well, was barely able to block a swipe coming from his left side. Using his right arm he swung his sword horizontally at Lyon who caught the sword with his palm. Pulling Natsu's sword towards himself, Lyon pulled Natsu's entire body and opened up with an elbow to the younger man's face, effectively making him fall to the ground._

_Smirking and panting slightly, Lyon spoke, "You're getting good, Natsu. A year or two and you'll finally reach my level." He said and grinned._

_Natsu glared at the other while panting, "That's unfair, Lyon-nii, you grabbed my sword with your hand!" He said._

_"Fights are never fair, especially in the battlefield." He said knowingly before offering Natsu a hand which the younger man took and stood up shakily, "You need to remember this if you want to survive as a Ryuukishi. Never give your opponent an opening and use anything and everything you can as an advantage."_

_"But this isn't a battlefield!" Natsu said with a pout, making the older man frown slightly._

_"This is training for one, kid." He said and patted the pinkette on the head, "Training will never be the same as the battlefield, but it will prepare you for one. You need to imagine that training is a real live combat situation if you want to be ready for when you're out there in your suit." Lyon said with a fond smile on his face._

_"Hey, nii-san…" Natsu paused, "You think I'll ever find _that_ guy?" He said as his expression darkened slightly._

_Lyon thought about what he had asked for a moment before realization struck him and a sad expression shaped his features, "The one you saw at Area 15?"_

_Natsu nodded, "That purple one."_

_The older Ryuukishi sighed before placing a hand on the pinkette's shoulder, "I don't know, Natsu, I don't know. Honestly, if you ask me, I think it is better if you didn't."_

_"B-but…" Natsu's sad face twisted into one filled with anger and resentment, "That guy… he k-killed…"_

_Lyon squeezed the teen's shoulder gently, "I know, kid. Look, what I mean by saying that you're better off not seeing it is the same anger you're feeling now. If you'd encounter him in a real life combat situation you would prioritize the bastard and your anger would get the better of you which could end up with you or your team losing their lives."_

_Natsu swatted Lyon's hand away angrily, "I don't care!" He screamed, "Why do you have to always give live combat examples?! Like that or something else could happen!? We're not in combat yet!"_

_Lyon scowled before shaking his head slowly, "You're missing the point, kid. Every bit of training, even verbal training, is needed before live combat. It is because nothing will allow you to know what you will be up against, but knowing even the most smallest of details will always help you out. Knowing how to deal with things may increase your chances of survival immensely." He said before his phone beeped quietly, indicating that he was needed by command, "Look, Natsu, I'm needed by HQ."_

_"A new mission?" He asked and the white-haired nodded, "How long?"_

_"Not sure." He said with a shrug, "In any case, we'll continue with training once I get back, okay?" Lyon asked and the pinkette nodded, "Think about what we talked about and don't forget to train, alright?" He smiled as he turned around and made his way towards the training room's exit._

_"Yeah." The teen said with a small smile of his own, "Don't die, Lyon-nii." He called out to his older brother figure who waved his hand in return while continuing on his path._

Natsu rubbed his face at the memory of what happened all those years ago. He clenched his fist and smashed it against one of the locker's doors, effectively bending it, as sadness and anger filled him. He couldn't believe that happened so long ago. Rubbing his face again and scratching his eyes to prevent a tear, he zipped up his Ryuukishi suit before placing his clothes in his locker.

He wore a black skin-tight body suit with cyberneticaly weaved extremely small parts of armor plating, like the design of chain mail, only invisible to the naked eye. His chest was covered with a dark sleeveless Kevlar vest where his gun holster was placed on the left side. It had his name, rank and regiment plastered on the right side of his chest. On his left bicep was the flag of New Fiore. An emblem of a skull on the left side of his chest; only the upper part of the emblem resembled a skull while the lower one looked like a gas mask. Ghost squad's own emblem. A belt on his midsection where a combat knife was located with many other small packs to hold ammunition for his handgun, two grenades and a communication device if things got bad and he had to make do without his fighter. Kevlar armoring covered the area from his belt down his thighs to his knees. Covering the knees were rounded metal guards that wrapped around, covering the front and both sides of the knee but leaving the back unprotected. The boots themselves were metallic and came up to the shins. From the outside of the knees downwards was a long piece of metal that got wider as it went down and as it reached the halfway point between the knee and shin it turned into a narrow triangle. From the lower edge, nearest to the front of the leg, a small strip of metal was wrapped around, covering a portion of the leg before disappearing inside the top of the boots. On the edge of the triangle, nearest to the back of the leg, a small strip of metal went out and trailed the calf before attaching to the ankle of the boots. The boots themselves resembled something you would see on heavy weaponry such as a mechanical armored suit or a mech. It was used to enhance Ryuukishi movement if they were ever forced to leave their suits and retreat or fight in hand-to-hand combat.

Natsu shook his shoulders to get a feel of his suit. The armored shoulder pads made his shoulders feel stiff, something he'd have to talk to the engineers about, but all in all he felt comfortable in it. He ruffled his hair before putting on his gloves that were covered in Kevlar armoring from his elbows to his wrists. They had a small computer mainframe on his left appendage. Something he'd need to use to add memos, get objectives from command or simply map out an area. He considered the thing extremely useful since it basically acted as a replacement for your mech's interface if you ever got separated from it.

Huffing and nodding to himself, he checked the time on the small computer on his left arm and sighed. Ten minutes till mission start. He'd have to hustle it. He closed his locker and locked it before exiting the changing room.

Walking through the underground corridors towards the Ryuukishi hangar, Natsu was deeply lost in his own thoughts. Why did he remember Lyon? That question gnawed at him as much as the memory. Lyon Vastia, one of the best Ryuukishi in New Fiore's history, dubbed _**Reitei (Sub-Zero Emperor) **_for his cold and decisive actions on the battlefield, Lyon had only lost three battles in his whole life. And he had been a part of many, ranging from fighting against rebels, traitors or the now nonexistent plague. He missed his older brother figure, he really did. Lyon was the one who taught Natsu everything he knew when he was young and Natsu couldn't be more grateful to him for that. Lyon was the reason why Natsu survived his first battle in the first place.

His very first battle with the Sanshōo 1 where he managed to survive because of Lyon's guidance in the past. Using the knowledge the white-haired man passed onto Natsu, the pinkette managed to turn the tables on his mission and narrowly escaped defeat and death. Although, after the mission, the Sanshōo had to be scrapped since it almost cost Natsu's life when it exploded due to Etherionite vibrations, an error in the design of the whole machine. Ever since then Natsu has been with the Sanshōo 2, a completely new design with no glitches or danger to the pilot's life, and has never had any complaints.

He smiled fondly as he replayed the memory inside his head. He chuckled slightly; if he were to go against Lyon now he would probably kick his ass into next week. Now he could easily point out the mistakes and errors in his own stances, attacks and defense. Hell, he could even point out some of the weaknesses on Lyon's part, though he was sure the guy wasn't even serious with him back then.

Natsu groaned over dramatically and ruffled his hair with both of his arms as he turned a corner. First Gray comes in and ruins his mood, now Lyon comes around and makes him feel all nostalgic and depressed. Why is it that those two always pissed him off the most? Who was he kidding, the two were his only friends, hell, they considered each other brothers. Sighing before smiling fondly, he chose to shove those kinds of thoughts aside for now. He had a mission, after all, and as Lyon had said: Always prioritize the mission. One single stray thought and you might end up as cannon fodder. He groaned again, he was still thinking about that bastard. Go figure.

Near the closed doors to the hangar Natsu saw a person that made his eyes widen and his cheeks turn red slightly. Major Ultear Milkovich. The woman was leaning against a wall, her hands folded and eyes closed as she hummed a tune Natsu knew all too well. NJ Legion Iced Tea. Why did the music they listened to had to be so similar?

His pace slowed slightly as he continued to the hangar. Ultear's eyes snapped open as she heard footsteps and looked to the pinkette's direction. Noticing him, her cheeks were covered a bright red as she turned away.

"Y-yo." He greeted dumbly with a wave of his hand.

"Good morning…" She said quietly, her hair covering her eyes slightly as she kept looking to the side. Was this really the same Major he knew? The ruthless Major warrior woman that wouldn't know what affection meant for the life of her? In any case, he thought that the situation he had gotten himself in was extremely awkward, so he did what any real man would do; he decided to brush it off as a one night stand.

"N-Natsu… I…" Ultear began, but was interrupted before she even got the chance to relay what she wanted to say.

"I'm sorry!" Natsu said with a bow, surprising the dark-purple haired woman, "I'm sorry for forcing myself on you last night! I was extremely drunk and I didn't realize what I was doing until I woke up this morning! The fact that I can't even remember properly what happened yesterday can only add to that." He said without noticing that her body started to shake slightly in anger, "Yesterday meant nothing, so please, don't feel embarrassed over what happened and I hope that…" He was cut short when a fist smashed against the back of his head rather painfully.

"You stupid idiot!" Ultear growled as she rubbed her fist. Damn this guy's head was hard, "What did I expect from an immature idiot like you? And I came all this way to wish you luck on your mission. I'm so pathetic!" She screamed at herself and simply walked away.

Natsu rubbed the back of his head and glanced at her direction dumbly. What the _fuck_ just happened? Was he imagining things or was the Major… no, was Ultear actually _interested_ in _him_? And did he just _fucking_ blow it to smithereens? Punching himself in the face mentally, he had to agree with her. He really was a _fucking dumbass_.

He sighed and was about to continue to the hangar as if nothing had happened before she turn her head to the side so she was able to look at him with her backside facing him, "_Don't die, okay?_" She said and continued on her way.

The pinkette's eyes widened once again as he stared at her retreating figure without realizing what the hell had just transpired. He ruffled his hair and groaned. Seriously, women were beyond him. Although he had to admit, those words did make his heart tingle, even if just a little. A small smile making its way to his lips, he pressed his palm against the door's touch-pad before it scanned his fingertips and a green light of affirmation shone above the double doors as they opened.

Upon entrance he noticed that all of Ghost squad, minus Mavis, had gathered. All three of his teammates looked at the pinkette curiously while he kept scratching the back of his head. Damn, that punch Ultear threw at him hurt like a motherfucker.

"Didn't you say you'd be here before we got here, Lt?" Sting asked with a small smile on his face.

"Sorry, I got lost taking a walk down memory lane." He said and waved his hand in dismissal. All three of the Ryuukishi stared at their lieutenant blankly.

"Cheesy." They said in unison, making the pinkette chuckle.

"Maybe, but it's true." He smiled fondly, remembering the time he, Lyon and Gray were kids, "In any case, let's get started. I want to get back to sort some things out." The pinkette said and the others of Ghost squad nodded before they made their way to their machines.

They were greeted with the expectant dark-blue eyes of Juvia Lokser, a senior New Fiorean engineer, "Good morning." She greeted them with a smile while sitting at her desk, fiddling with her computer.

"Mornin' Juves." Natsu greeted back with a smile of his own as he approached her desk, "What have you got for us today?"

She glanced behind Natsu and then back at him curiously, "Isn't Gray-sama with you, Natsu-san?" The blue-haired woman asked and the Ryuukishi had to suppress the need to facepalm. '_Gray-sama this, Gray-sama that… I seriously need to kick that guy's ass and tell him to notice her so she can stop annoying me with this shit!_' He thought to himself with a sweatdrop.

"No, he isn't. He's talking with command." He lied. This was the only explanation that he could tell her so she would stop pestering him about that raven-haired freak. Seriously, it was the one and only explanation that would make her stop questioning since if lieutenants went to command it was usually top secret stuff that engineers shouldn't butt their noses in.

Juvia frowned at the information, "The Sanshōo 2 has been completely repaired, Natsu-san." She said, pushing the sorrow of not seeing _Gray-sama _away… for now, "Per your request, I have made adjustments to the Sanshōo's joints and propulsion system. You should no longer feel like 'the thing's about to blow to shit,' as you said, when you're airborne or landing." She said and Natsu grinned.

"You're a life saver, Juves! Seriously, thinking that I might die just from igniting my damned thrusters is a bit… bad." He concluded for lack of a better word, making the woman smile brightly at him.

"I take it you gentlemen have to depart as soon as possible, yes?" She asked and Sting popped into the conversation.

"Yup, we're actually a bit late, Juvia-chan, so could you please let us proceed?" The blond man asked with a pleading smile on his face to which the woman sighed and nodded. She turned to the computer on her desk and pressed a few buttons. They heard some rumbling before a gate of sorts started to lift and four extremely large robots or, in this case, pieces of armor were visible.

Four armored beasts, one red while the others were black. The red one was almost colossal, it was massive and covered in armor. The head was circular, had a pointed jaw, narrow eyes that glowed gold, and the top of its head jutted forward a few inches above its eyes and slightly resembled a whale's head. Attached to the jaw were two metal 'collars' on each side of the head and on the end of both of them were two narrow metal 'antennas' that resembled the blades of swords. The chest protruded outwards slightly in the shape of a triangle of sorts and in addition to that a golden line ran across it and inside the line on both sides of the chest were narrow lines resembling the eyes of the head. It had rounded shoulder guards which jutted outwards slightly and its upper arms were unarmored while its forearms were armored and it had metal protrusions extended from its forearms that resembled metal wings. It had a narrow waist which was lined with micro weaves to give the unarmored waist added protection. Along its hips was a metallic and armored skirt designed to give its armored thighs extra protection. Its legs had standard armor and its knees were protected by slightly pointed knee guards. Its feet were narrow and slightly pointed and, in addition, on top of its feet, wrapping around its ankles, were metal bands that pointed backwards, slightly resembling blunted blades that protected the joints connecting the feet to the legs. The frames on each of its piece of armor were covered in a golden color, making it almost like eye candy to a pilot who valued the appearance of his mech.

The robotic giant was well known around New Fiore's military. The engineered masterpiece made to endure almost every situation probable and made specifically for one of the best pilots the military could offer. The Sanshōo 2 was made specifically for Natsu's tastes and per his requests.

The three other ones were of similar design, only that they were smaller and were darker with the same frames the red one had, only that they were grey instead of golden. All four machines had Ghost squad's emblem on their right shoulders, an insignia of a skull with the lower part being a gas mask.

Natsu smiled fondly at his machine. He has been in numerous hard situations with the new Sanshōo and could easily call the mech his partner in crime. Chuckling at the reference, he walked forward and up the stairs that led to his cockpit, followed closely by others of Ghost squad.

He walked through the bridge until he reached his mech. Pressing a few buttons on the computer mainframe on his hand, the hull of the Sanshōo opened and a platform with a mechanical chair extended to him. Smiling, he sat on the chair as a hologram of a touchscreen appeared. He pressed a few buttons on the holographic touchscreen and the platform started to move again. It retracted before the hull closed and Natsu was encased in darkness. Soon, a dim blue light made itself known and illuminated the insides of the mech. Scratching the back of his head, Natsu raised his arm and searched for something before pulling down an item that resembled visor-like glasses. He put them on pressed a button on the visor's right side.

"Power: on." He mumbled to himself and the visor flashed. In moments his vision changed, what he saw was changed from his own vision to what the Sanshōo's mechanical eyes were seeing. The mechanoid's head moved as it observed its surroundings, "Field of view's alright, colors seem to be in order, reaction times to ordered movements are solid as well." Natsu's voice rang through the Sanshōo's speakers

"Let's run a test before you depart." Juvia said and the red giant glanced at her direction before nodding stiffly.

The bridge that obscured the Sanshōo's path lifted and the robotic monster took a few steps forward to give itself more space, "Movement's alright, joints seem okay." The armored plates on his shoulders and legs shot out before thruster like rocket packs ignited themselves on the same armored plates, "Thrusters are working to their full capacity. No Etherionite errors present. Propulsion system's A-Okay." Natsu announced as he kept checking his mech's stability. The thrusters turned off before the armored plating retracted itself back into its metallic body. "On ground movement system," Natsu's voice echoed once again as wheels sprouted from the Sanshōo's feet. It drove around in all four directions before stopping near where a massive assault rifle was hung, "Check. Juvia, gimme a target." The pinkette said as he grabbed the assault rifle and drove to the Mech test-firing range.

"Targets coming right up!" The blue-haired woman announced happily as she fiddled with her computer. Soon after multiple targets appeared in Natsu's targeting system and he fired. One target appeared; headshot. Then another and another followed the same fate. Soon after a dozen more appeared, making Natsu grin. He aimed and fired from the mech's hip, skillfully shooting a bullet through each target's head.

The targets stopped after three rounds of all out headshots,"Targeting system's working at a hundred percent." Natsu said before an image popped up in his retinas.

"Targets killed: thirty out of thirty. Accuracy: 98 percent." Juvia whistled, "You're getting better." She said.

"Not good enough." Natsu's voice echoed through the red giant's speakers, "Ammo capacity?" He asked and a panel on his mech's right appendage opened, showing a selection of ten clips.

"Each one has the capacity of a hundred rounds." Juvia said, making the pinkette grin. More than enough, "In any case, let's check your defensive systems." She said as she initiated a mimic lock on warning to Natsu's suit. Red letters blared in his vision with the words 'LOCK ON' beeping in his face.

"Turn it off, it's annoying." Natsu growled, making the blue-haired woman chuckle.

"Because it's supposed to be." She said before fiddling with her computer some more.

"Close quarters combat?" Natsu asked, making Juvia smile confidently at his direction. She pressed a few more buttons on her computer before another panel opened where the assault rifle once was. Instead of another rifle there was a slightly curved sword, its guard curved even more, almost making look like a rapier's handle. The blade's length was almost as long as the robot itself and it's width was about three meters. The giant robot picked the sword up and tried swinging it a few times before nodding to himself.

Before he could even ask, a metallic pillar like structure erected near him and he nodded to Juvia with his mech gratefully. Getting in position by placing the blade slightly backwards, he slashed at the pillar and it split into two halves. The Sanshōo's head snapped to the side and glanced at the blue-haired woman who was grinning.

"A new model. It has a new micro weave design at the blade's edge, enabling you to cut through steel like butter." She said and Natsu's grin grew even wider.

This was perfect.

"Thanks again, Juves." He said and she nodded in return as the red giant moved to strap the blade to its backside.

"Okay, initial tests are complete, all that's left is for you to test it out in combat." The blue-haired woman concluded and glanced at the direction of the proudly standing mechanical robot.

"That being said," Natsu said and grinned as he turned back and saw the three other black mechs standing proudly and staring at him with their robotic eyes, "Let's go!" Natsu said and his mech started moving towards the lift off panel. Inside the mech, he opened up the holographic touchscreen and fiddled with some buttons. He pressed something that looked like an arrow pointing right before a holographic wheel appeared. Volume control. He grabbed it and turned it to the side. Extremely loud rock music started blaring through the Sanshōo's speakers and Juvia had to suppress a groan. This happened every single time.

As the four mechanoids drove to the launch platform and one by one took off, they failed to notice a dark-purple haired woman standing near the door to the hangar. She watched the four robots fly away and a smile crossed her features as she heard the music Natsu played. NJ Legion Iced Tea. Chuckling quietly, she felt a sting in her heart and a shiver ran down her spine.

She had a bad feeling as she looked at the Sanshōo's retreating form. Whenever she had a bad feeling bad things tended to happen. She shook her head to get those negative thoughts out of her head before sighing. She hoped, with all her being, that Natsu would return. Even if it was just so she could kick his face in for being so immature. Ultear rubbed her temples before turning around and walking away. '_I really am an idiot for seeing something in that brat_.' She thought to herself with a smile.


	3. Missing in Action

___A huge thanks to **Roxas.97** for betaing this! And, per his request, I'm informing you that he does not approve of what happens to Sting in this chapter *chuckles*  
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_**A Ghost's Conviction**  
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_**Chapter three: Missing in Action**  
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_The Wasteland, 1830hrs._

Deep inside a canyon a small rebel outpost resided. Many soldiers were bustling around, some carrying mechanical parts, weapons and other necessities while others were simply standing guard at their posts and doing their duty. A few guard towers situated around the area with guards holding rocket launchers standing at the towers' upper levels. A few tanks drove around the perimeter of the outpost, T-20's, by the looks of it. They had large cannons strapped to their top layer and a machinegun above. It's sides and back were less armored than their front. High mobility tanks set for charging the front lines.

A four story hangar situated near the small outpost, probably a rebel mech station for quick response to an attack. Some engineers were walking in and out of it when the main gate to the hangar opened and closed immediately after.

A guard walked out of the main outpost's building, a cigarette in his mouth as he approached another, "Status?" He asked sternly while exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"No abnormalities, sir." The other replied; his eyes locked on the vast nothingness leading from outside the canyon.

The smoking man sighed, "I wish _something _happened. This is getting boring" He said and the other glanced to his direction.

"Sir, you…" He was interrupted when something large smashed against the ground in front of them, erecting a large cloud of dust as mechanical sounds and the quiet blare of rock music reverberated through the area. The two fell to the ground before screaming in shock and looking towards where the large object had landed. They were met with a red, twenty meter large robot, a weapon in its hands, a blade its size strapped to its back, antennas that resembled blades on its head as its cold golden eyes watched the guards with amusement.

One of the men gaped in shock before coming back to his senses, "S-Sound the alarm! It's the milita…!" He was cut short when the red giant raised its rifle and opened fire, completely and utterly annihilating the two soldiers. Soon after the alarm was sounded, the base definitely heard the racket the mech made. Two rockets were immediately sent from the guard towers but were easily dodged by the red giant moving to the side. The four tanks that were scouting the perimeter changed their trajectory and headed to intercept the large robot.

Two tanks from behind it and the other two at its front. The red giant raised his rifle and shot at the tanks, doing little damage as the vehicles kept on their target. The armored vehicle that was at the front shot a slug at the robot but it was dodged as the machine charged and slightly strafed to the side. The missile that went past the robot hit one of the tank's sides behind it, effectively piercing through its armor and destroying it into nothingness.

The robot kept charging and, when it was in front of the tank, it grabbed its cannon with one of its large mechanized arms and lifted it up. The tank creaked while being airborne before the red giant swung it horizontally, making it smash against one of the guard towers, effectively breaking it in half and making the tank explode when it hit a batch of explosives that must have been stored inside the tower.

The robot raised its gun to the side and fired at an incoming missile sent by one of the tanks, effectively shooting it down. The exploding missile erected a wall of smoke and dust, creating a makeshift cover in the battlefield. The tank tried shooting again but hit only nothingness. In a matter of seconds the mechanical robot appeared above the tank and landed on it with a loud clang. It grabbed the tank's cannon and raised it upwards, ripping it off of the tank and leaving the crew of the large vehicle exposed. It aimed its rifle at the poor rebels and pulled the large trigger, sending a flurry of bullets that made what was left of the tank explode.

The red giant moved its head to avoid another incoming missile. Its head moved to glare at the spot from where the missile came from and the color of its eyes changed from golden to red. Thermal vision. It saw through the smoke with an enhanced line of sight and glared holes at the tank. Noticing a target of opportunity to the tank's side, it opened fire and a gas barrel exploded a few meters from the armored vehicle, effectively destroying the tank's metallic wheels and rendering it immobile.

The robot was taken aback when in a moment's notice the tank fired again. It barely managed to dodge the incoming rocket but its shoulder was still scratched by it passing by. Luckily for the mech it didn't explode upon contact. Glaring at the tank again, it sprayed at the vehicle with its rifle, emptying its whole clip until the tank was completely destroyed. Something beeped inside the machine and it looked to the second guard tower where a soldier was aiming an RPG at it. Igniting its thrusters, the red giant charged openly at the structure, smashing it in half with its right hand before the guard even had a chance to fire off his weapon.

The mechanical giant raised its weapon as a panel on its left arm opened, showing a selection of ammunition for his weapon. He took out a magazine and reloaded, releasing the empty clip from his weapon almost like a rocket. Its head snapped when it heard a different siren blaring. It turned to the side and saw the damaged outpost's hangar gate open. Seconds later a large robotic menace flew from the hangar directly at him, a large sword in its metallic hand.

The red robot barely managed to raise its weapon, using the rifle as a shield to block a downward horizontal slash coming from the other mech. It was yellow and huge; its form itself resembled something like a wrestler, a round body, round and hard metallic arms with glowing red eyes staring at its opponent.

A _**Jagānōto(Juggernaut)**_.

The Sanshōo pushed its weapon forwards, causing it and the Jagānōto to back away about thirty meters from each other. The red robot raised its weapon and fired a flurry of bullets that seemed to only bounce off of the yellow mech. The Ryuukishi inside the Sanshōo tsked. This thing was hard as a rock.

The yellow giant placed one of its appendages forward, multiple panels opened from its wrist and missiles launched from them, their target being the red mech. As a response, multiple panels opened from the red robot's lets and the thursters on its shoulders ignited. It launched upwards, barely dodging the oncoming missiles. Its head shot back when a lock on warning beeped in the pilot's retinas.

Heat seeking missiles. Nothing was ever easy, was it?

It turned around and flew backwards while spraying at the missiles with its rifle. Shooting all of them down, he failed to notice the yellow mech appearing behind it while it jabbed in a downwards motion with one of its large arms. A sword in its right hand, ready to stab through the Sanshōo when it got hit with its hand.

The Sanshōo's pilot, however, had had enough of this child's play. The red giant grabbed the hilt of the sword strapped to its back with its right appendage and pushed it downwards, causing the blade of the sword to lift upwards and cut the Jagānōto's limb off. It glanced at the sword in its metallic hand as the Jagānōto backed off slightly to inspect the damage it received. The Ryuukishi inside the red mech grinned, true to every word, this blade cut through steel like butter.

Placing its sword slightly backwards, the Sanshōo charged openly at the yellow mech, trying to cut it clean in half. To the Ryuukishi's displeasure, the Jagānōto canceled out its thrusters and fell to the ground. The red mech would have none of that. It followed the other mech as it landed and, without warning, stabbed right through its head. The Sanshōo's blade went straight into the other mech, stabbing its head, going through its chest and reaching the ground. The blade really was long and extremely dangerous to destroy an armored unit like a Jagānōto so easily.

Taking its sword out, the red giant backed away just before the Jagānōto exploded into pieces. It landed on the ground and swung its sword horizontally, a habit the Ryuukishi had developed after destroying so many enemy mechs. The machine strapped the sword to its back and gazed at the now destroyed base, what was left of it was burning to the ground in an inferno of flames and rebels screaming for their lives.

Sighing with a glint of guilt in his eyes, the pink haired Ryuukishi occupying the Sanshōo pressed a button on the right side of his visor, "Ghost one reporting; rebel outpost one is destroyed." He mumbled before an image of a black haired man appeared in his retinas.

"This is Ghost three, second one is destroyed as well." He relayed; his red eyes only slightly visible while being covered by the same visor the pinkette had.

The Sanshōo's pilot nodded, "Good work, Rogue. Ghost two, status?" He asked and another image appeared near Rogue's, this time a blond man occupying it with a wide grin on his face.

"Ghost two here. You should hear it in three… two… one… BOOM." He shouted with a laugh as the pinkette could feel the ground under his machine shake. The red giant's head snapped to the side and relayed a flaming mushroom like cloud erect into the sky to the Ryuukishi's retinas.

He sweatdropped, "You do realize that we don't want the base to notice that we're destroying their only line of defense and reinforcements, right?"

Sting pouted, "Oh come on Lt., can't we have some fun? This is going to be easy anyway!"

Natsu groaned slightly and rubbed his face in annoyance while Rogue whistled at the sight of the explosion, "How the hell did you manage that anyway?"

The blond Ryuukishi scratched his temples and feigned a thinking pose, "Well… they had a V2. So I thought I should blow the sucker to watch some fireworks. You know, to spice things up a bit."

"Wait… A V2? How the _fuck _did the rebels get something like that?" Rogue voiced the question that was in Natsu's head. The V2, dubbed as 'the kicker' by the military since it could basically kick anything's ass and blow it to kingdom come, was a rocket the military created that was a secret until not so long ago when it was test fired against a campaigning rebel militia that had tried taking Area 9. There was no way the military would allow the rebels to get their hands on something like this. If they did it would mean a serious setback to Crocus since the rebels just might shoot that thing at any of the nine unsuspecting areas surrounding the capital. Something was odd about this whole situation. The rebels shouldn't even have enough T-20's to station around simple defense outposts!

"I have no idea. They probably stole it from one of the military barracks over the wall." Sting said with a shrug.

"I think it's more complicated than that." Natsu said with a scowl, "In any case, Ghost four, status?" He said and another image of a black-white haired man popped up in the pinkette's retinas.

"How many T-20's did you guys fight? Four each?" Midnight asked and the three others of Ghost squad nodded, making him sigh, "There are about ten of the fuckers circling around the main base." He said, making Natsu quirk an eyebrow.

"Ten? Now I know something's wrong." He said before his scowl deepened, "Four, map out the area." He ordered and the black-white haired man nodded before his image disappeared from Natsu's vision. Moments later a map popped up as Midnight's voice sounded in his ears.

"They are already aware of our presence and have reinforced their guard on each of the sides leading from the outposts you guys destroyed. Say thanks to the blond haired buffoon." He said, making Sting growl.

"Shut up, emo-goth-batshit-crazy-freak!" He said, making Rogue chuckle and Natsu sigh.

"Can it, you dumbass. I told you it was a covert mission until we reach the main base!" He said with annoyance. He didn't mean it though, he probably would've done the same thing, after all, "How many mechs do you count?"

"Over five on each side of the base that lead to your points of entrance." Midnight announced and Natsu nodded," The base has six guard towers, one on each of its corners and two near the main entrahce. Rebels with RPG's guarding the area. I have a hunch they've got heat seekers."

"Then I leave the towers on the base's corners to you. What Mechs do they have?" The pinkette asked.

"Five mechs on each section. Three Jagānōtos and, here's the kicker, there are two others with the Jugs that I have never seen before." Midnight said with worry in his voice.

Natsu grimaced, "Specs?"

"About twenty meters tall, extremely armored. I detect only a few weak points, neck, waist and the joints connecting the arms to the shoulders. 40mm burst fire assault rifles, expected to have thermal imaging sights. Swords strapped to their backs, might be Etherion induced, not sure. Their thrusters seem to be 3G's." He paused for a second before sighing, "Here's the catch. Their chests are small, showing no signs of having a cockpit." Midnight concluded, making Natsu's eyes widen.

"Meaning they're remote controlled." Natsu said what Midnight wanted to and the black-white haired man nodded.

Sting groaned over dramatically, "Please tell me they don't have any ground to air."

Ghost four shook his head, "Luckily, they don't."

"Lt, something's odd about this whole mission." Rogue said.

"You noticed it too, huh." Natsu answered with a sigh.

"So many T-20's, a V2 and Mechs we don't know? More so that they're not piloted? How is that hard to notice? You sure we have enough firepower for this one?" Ghost three asked and Natsu bit his lip. He hated these kinds of situations; the kind where he had to make choices for the entire team which might result in their deaths if he was wrong. It's not that he wasn't decisive, in combat situations he was, but that didn't mean he should like it.

He sighed, "We've been through harder shit before, haven't we?" He said and the two black haired Ryuukishi smiled slightly with a nod while the blond one chuckled slightly.

"That's the spirit! Now, how are we doing this?" He asked and Natsu's eyes narrowed at the map in his vision.

"How long till the geeks get here?" The pinkette asked.

"Their last communication was five minutes ago. They said they were over a hundred klicks away, meaning about an hour." Rogue informed.

The pinkette nodded, "More than enough. Okay, I'll mark three entrances… there." He placed three markers on the map from where all of them were to invade, "I'll go to marker one, the base's front, where the defense is thickest. Ghost two's going to take the side while three takes the rear. Ghost four, you remain in your position and provide covering fire and support. If things go to hell use the P6, got it?"

All three of the Ryuukishi nodded, "If shit hits the fan in any of your positions retreat immediately. We're coming out of this alive, you read me?" He asked and the three nodded with grins on their faces, the images of them turning into simple circles that beeped green in affirmation, red in negative or yellow in warning when an order was given. He sighed and leaned back on his chair, this wasn't going to be easy, was it?

He pressed a few buttons on the touchpad on his mech's interface and set a course for his marker. Five klicks east. It'd take a few minutes to get there and he'd have to hustle it.

Igniting its thrusters, the Sanshōo lifted off and made for the top of the canyon. Emerging from the precipice, it continued flying upwards until it was about fifty meters above and stopped mid-air. Natsu gazed at the dirty, rocky nothingness that was the wasteland. Covered in ruins of once proud cities that adorned the landscape, the entire area gave off a depressing feel. There even was a bridge that made a path through the canyon, though now it was nothing more than rusting metal that would crash down at any given moment.

Natsu pushed those thoughts away and steeled himself. The mech's thrusters strengthened and it headed east to its destination, intent on demolishing his enemies and seeing this mission through to the end without any casualties to his team.

While the distance to his mission lessened by the second, Natsu thought about this whole situation one more time. How the hell did the rebels manage to get their hands on such tech? What worried him the most were the unmanned mechs. Midnight didn't know what the hell they were. That in itself meant that the things were experimental since the guy knew every military mech out there.

Even if they were unmanned, everything had its weaknesses. But from what Midnight had said, these things would be a bitch to take out. So little weak points meant he would have to fight them in close range, but the catch of remote controlled mechs was that their aim was enhanced by whatever computer was managing them. It gave them an accuracy rating of almost a hundred percent. The only downside to that was its reaction time to melee attacks. If they managed to get in close without being skewered by those painfully large 40mm rifles, destroying the mechs would be a piece of cake.

When about two klicks away, Natsu could already see the base as a minimap appeared on the upper right side of his retinas. Midnight mapped out the area of five square kilometers around the base and is constantly sending them updates. Natsu enlarged the minimap and saw three green lights slowly entering the base's perimeter. Numbered from one to three, he knew that Sting had gone in too fast and is already in combat, if the sound of guns being used wasn't enough to attest to that.

About seventy red dots appeared on his map. Enemies. Five were scattered around three sides of the base. The mechs, he guessed. Ten circled around the base, T-20's. The four corners of the base each had about five dots on them with two more of those hotspots near the entrance, guard towers. The fifteen or so others he saw must have been military personnel manning their posts. He tsked, no information on the inside of the structure. That wasn't good if their enemies had any kind or form of secret weapon.

The map retracted and Natsu redirected more of his mech's power into its thrusters. His speed increasing, he reached the base in a matter of seconds and was bombarded by missile and gun fire. He caught the attention of the two guard towers at the entrance and three tanks, the five mechs standing back, acting as a last defensive line between the Sanshōo and the base. He dodged a few of the projectiles the tanks sent and aimed his assault rifle at the heat seeking missiles the guard towers fired. He shot them down and cancelled out his thrusters, making him descend to ground level. He landed and activated the mech's driving system, making it sprout wheels at its feet. He drove to intercept one of the tanks as it readied to fire. Lifting its rifle, the red giant shot at the tank's cannon, one bullet managing to make its way through the large cannon and hit the slug before it fired, causing a premature explosion that destroyed the tank from the inside out.

Natsu glanced at the five idly standing mechs before continuing to intercept the tanks. Oh was he glad that the computer controlling them decided to not waste ammo on the chance that it might hit the Sanshōo at this range. He was so, so glad.

The Sanshōo moved its head to the side to avoid another incoming missile and jumped high up in the air to avoid a heat seeking rocket sent by one of the guard's RPGs which hit the ground, unable to readjust its course to fly upwards. He landed on one of the two tanks coming his way and dented it to the point of it breaking in two. He swiftly jumped to the side to avoid the exploding shrapnel going his way from the now destroyed tank.

Glaring at the other tank, the red giant grabbed the sword strapped to its back and ignited its thrusters once more. With speed the tank couldn't even dream of matching, the Sanshōo charged openly at the last armored vehicle, cutting its top part off when in range. The cannon of the vehicle flew upwards when the tank erupted in a fiery explosion.

Ghost one lifted his rifle and fired at one of the guard towers with its 20mm assault rifle, spraying its bullets in a flurry of destruction and the tower was, quite literally, blasted away.

Thinking fast as one of the yellow Jagānōtos started moving his way and when the unknown mechs raised their 40mm cannon-like rifles, he charged again and intercepted the Jagānōto, pushing it with him forward so it could act as a shield against the murderous bombardment of the computer controlled mechs.

While pushing the yellow mech backwards with his left hand, he rammed it against one of the unknown computer controlled machines and stabbed its sword against the yellow one, causing it to skewer both of the machines, effectively destroying them. The red giant grabbed the machine's 40mm burst fire weapon and shot at the guard tower while shooting at the other unknown mech with the gun in his other hand, aiming at its most prominent weak point; its neck. Both targets were destroyed in an instant.

He was jabbed in the head by one of the Jagānōtos and was made to take a few steps back. Natsu growled before making his mech raise the 40mm weapon and shot at his enemy's chest, directly where the pilot was. A scream barely audible was heard from the exploding machine as the last one charged Ghost one.

In response to this, Natsu dropped both of his weapons and grabbed a large piece of rubble that dropped when the guard tower exploded. He smashed it against the oncoming yellow machine, effectively sending it staggering a couple of dozen meters back. The Sanshōo ignited its thrusters and lunged forward, kicking the Jagānōto's head with its knee, making it drop to the floor. The red giant landed on it and smashed its fist against the armored monster's chest, propelling its appendage by igniting a small thruster on the outer side of its elbow. The fist went right through before the red machine jumped away to avoid the exploding rebel mech.

Natsu landed near his sword and took it out of the two poor mechanoids. He noticed with amusement that the computer controlled mech was still moving and thrust his sword against its head, effectively ceasing its activity.

He picked up his own 20mm rifle and looked around at all the destruction he caused. Ghost one sighed, he had honestly expected this to be more of a challenge, especially from the mechs Midnight had never seen before. He wondered how the others were doing. He put his hand against his visor's right side, "Ghost one reporting. Front's clear of enemy activity. How're things on your end?"

Ghost two and three's lights flashed green in affirmation. Good, the two handled themselves well. What bugged Natsu was that Midnight was delaying, "Ghost f…" He was cut short when Ghost four's light bleeped yellow. He knew that Midnight never gave out warning signals if stuff wasn't going to shit, which meant…

He was cut off from his train of thought when a blue laser like beam flew by him and hit the base. He barely had any time to ignite his thrusters and fly away from the base as fast as the Sanshōo allowed him to. Ghost one barely managed to escape an extremely large explosion that engulfed the whole base in a fiery inferno.

The large blue beam he saw just before he retreated made his worries apparent. Midnight used the P6, "Ghost four! Report! What the fuck happened?!" Natsu screamed.

"Get the hell out of there, Lt!" Natsu heard Sting shout through comms before a smaller explosion rocked what was left of the rebel base. He saw Sting's mech fly through the smoke to his direction, Rogue flying near him to inspect his situation.

Loud gunshots were heard as the bullets sent by Midnight's sniper rifle left a grey afterimage behind them. The fourth of Ghost squad appearing soon after, "What the hell's happening?!" Ghost one shouted through his comms.

Sting coughed, "It seems we have an uninvited guest." He said.

Before Natsu could comprehend what he meant, another explosion rocked the area as an extremely large figure exited the fiery inferno. It was a mech. An almost thirty meter tall purple mech with red outlining.

The massive mech stood menacingly. Its face was narrow with a slightly pointed jaw and its forehead had two blade-like appendages pointing backwards towards the sky. Wrapped around the back of its head, like earphones of a sort, was a metal armoring. The front of it had two glowing orange lights and the outer sides of the headgear had two large blade-like appendages pointing backwards. It had narrow line-like eyes that glowed orange, and its neck, that disappeared into the armor covering its chest, had neon orange lines running around it. Its chest plate was of an oval shape and the front of it jutted forward in a triangular position. Near the top there were two prominent creases, one on top and one on the bottom, with an orange light glowing in between them. Its shoulders were covered by massive triangle shaped shoulder guards. In between the shoulder guards, nearing the ends that pointed into the air, were two blade shaped protrusions that pointed upwards into the air. In between them was a massive blade shaped object that pointed downwards and that had booster ports. Its arms were long and armored while the forearms had two blunt metal objects attached to the back of them and the hands were armored as well. It had a slim and armored waist along with flat hips. The hips were armored by a metal skirt and on top of them were two armored thruster's ports that had square, tile like metal handing from them. The back of the skirt was long and reached down to the back of the mech's knees that hid two boosters attached to the back of the skirt on the inside. It had armored legs and from the knee downward to the ankles, it was covered with extra plating that was wide and slightly covered the side of the skin and knees. The tip of the extra plating was blunted and pointing upwards towards the sky. It had pointed shoes that had grips on the bottom and its ankles were circular and had metal braces on the back that wrapped around the back of the foot. On the side of the ankles were boomerang shaped objects and one end pointed behind the mech while the other pointed into the air.

Natsu's eyes went wide at what he saw. It was the same thing he saw twenty years ago. The same thing he saw over seven years ago when he saw the vids of Lyon's last moments. Anger overfilled his being. The Sanshōo gripped its sword's hilt harder and charged the massive machine head on as Natsu's roar could be heard through the comms.

"Lt! Get back!" Midnight shouted as he opened up with a few more rounds from his massive sniper rifle.

The bullets simply bounced off of the purple mech and Ghost four's eyes went wide. How thick was this thing? He growled and kept shooting. There was no way in hell he would let this piece of shit ignore him.

Natsu, on the other hand, ignored Midnight's warning and kept heading towards the purple beast's direction. He opened up with a swipe of his sword that was blocked by the blade-like protrusions on the mechanical monster's appendages. Natsu saw as the larger mech pointed some sort of gun at his mech's chest. Before he realized what had happened the mech pressed the trigger. A blue light engulfed him as an explosion rocked the area and the Sanshōo was sent barreling back almost a hundred meters.

"Lt!" Sting screamed as his mech slowly stood up.

"What the fuck was that?! An Etherion weapon?!" Rogue growled through the comms while Midnight kept shooting his sniper rifle at the enemy, every single shot bouncing off without even leaving a dent.

"What the fuck is with this thing!?" He screamed before cursing as his ammo ran out. He threw the sniper to his side as the two others of Ghost squad did the same.

Natsu's panting could be heard through the comms as his mech shakily got up on its feet, "Motherfucker… I'll _eradicate _you."

"Ghost one! Don't!" Rogue screamed but was too late. The Sanshōo flew by them and swung at the purple robot, the attack ending when it blocked Natsu's blade with the same protrusions on its forearms. Rogue tsked loudly, "Come on, let's go!" He shouted and charged, followed closely by Sting and Rogue.

He had no clue what this thing was, nor did he know who the hell it belonged to. Rebels? No, there was no way they possessed technology like that. Raiders? No way in seven hells did those dumbasses have the knowledge of driving a mech, let alone such a powerful one. The last option made his eyes widen in realization. He didn't want to believe it, but there was no other explanation.

He swung his blade at the other side of the purple mech but his attack was blocked as well. Both Ghost one and three were pushed back by the mechs oversized hands before both of them received blows to their mech's heads, sending both of them barreling to the sides. Midnight and Sting attacked the thing next. Midnight aimed with a blow to its head to which the purple beast responded by smashing its fist against Ghost four's chest, almost smashing the mech in while sending it flying. The last of Ghost squad, Ghost two, tried stabbing the purple machine's back but was backhanded and smashed against the burning base's side. The larger robot grabbed one of Ghost two's appendages and smashed his mech's whole body against the same wall before throwing the black mech over it and let it fall towards where the other three were.

"Lt, calm down. I think I know who this fucker belongs to." Rogue said while panting as a bead of sweat ran down his cheek.

"What the fuck does it matter?! We roast the sucker and the mission's done!" Midnight shouted.

"It does matter because we were betrayed you assfuck!" Rogue screamed back and could already tell the white-black haired man's eyes went wide. Silence followed before Natsu huffed.

"Why didn't I see this sooner?" He growled out, venom dripping from his voice.

"Rogue, mind explaining?" Sting asked with a cough while glaring at the purple robot who simply stood idle and watched the four's movements.

"Look, didn't this shit seem odd to you? We were sent to the middle of nowhere in search of a rebel Etherion dig site. Backup was supposed to come ages ago, not to mention the science team hasn't been responding." He said and paused for a while to let the others think about what he had said, "Don't you think the firepower allocated to this 'dig site' is a bit much? And take into consideration that it's the rebellion we're talking about. There's no way they'd allocate over two dozens of T-20's to defend a simple mining base, not to mention the unknown mechs we fought. They even have damned 40mm's!"

"What the hell are you saying? Raiders?" Sting questioned, making the black-haired Ryuukishi facepalm.

"No you dumbass. Those fuckers are still in the stone-age. What I'm saying is that the military has betrayed us!" He shouted, "They probably wanted to test this turd out," he motioned for the purple mech, "to see how well it fared in combat!" He concluded and Natsu growled again.

"So what the fuck do we do now?!" Sting asked what was on all four of their minds. Though, before they could do anything, the mech's neon eyes changed from orange to red. Natsu suddenly got an extremely bad feeling in his gut. The purple menace ignited its thrusters and charged. Ghost one charged as well but was simply swatted away as if he was a mere fly.

His retinas exhibited some static before he glared at the purple monster again. What he saw made his eyes bulge out and his jaw fall, "MIDNIGHT!" He screamed. In the midst of battle the purple mech managed to grab one of the 40mm rifles lying on the ground. It held Ghost four's head with its left appendage and had it risen above ground. It aimed the rifle at Ghost Four's chest and fired. The bullets went straight through, not even a scream was heard, only blood splattered through the many holes the 40mm bullets left.

Natsu roared as the Sanshōo lunged towards the purple machine. The Ryuukishi groaned as his enemy's elbow smashed against his chest, shaking the entire mech with the brute force of the punch. It grabbed the red machine's head with one of its hands while the other appendage grabbed the Sanshōo's left arm. Forcefully, the purple menace pulled and decapitated Natsu's mech. It let go of the Sanshōo's head and punched it in its metallic jaw, cracking its head and making the red mech's body fly through the air.

The purple machine turned around after its motion trackers picked up movement behind it. It instinctively swung a backhand and hit a black mech, sending it barreling to the side. Its head snapped to the side violently as it was hit across its metallic face by a screaming Ghost three's fist. The purple monster turned back instantly, its armored hands grabbing the black mech's hands and forcefully ripped them off. Its head snapped forward and it violently headbutted the Ghost.

"Crap!" Rogue groaned as his view went static. He couldn't do shit with a broken mech! He felt his machine be pushed forward before it fell on its back. Taking this opportunity to retreat from his mech, he initiated the command to open his hull and carefully climbed out. Even though his mech was trashed, he had no intention of retreating. He'd grab one of the RPGs that belonged to the now dead guards and he'd blow the piece of shit to smithereens.

He stood on the top of his black machine before glancing to where their enemy was. His eyes widened as a piece of rubble, almost the size of a tank, came flying towards him. He knew there was no way he was going to be able to dodge that. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as it neared him, the only thoughts running through his head was a prayer. A prayer that what was left of Ghost squad, Natsu and Sting, would make it out alive and kill the sucker that demolished them. The rubble hit the mech before bouncing off it and skidding across the ground, leaving a crimson trail in its wake.

The last black mech rushed at the purple one, blade in the Ghost's hand, it swung directly and was shocked when the blade simply bounced off of its shoulder without doing any damage whatsoever. Sting's mech suffered an uppercut from the fairly larger machine and was sent flying. His enemy engaged its thrusters and flew upwards, meeting the black mech mid-air. It slashed with its forearms and cut the Ghost's mech in half. Both parts started falling to the ground but it seemed as if the colossal robot hadn't had enough. It grabbed one of the upper part of Sting's robot's arms and raised it to its own eye level.

Natsu's retinas blared with static again before he shakily stood up on his feet. He glanced around and noticed something that made his heart ache. No. Just no. This wasn't fucking happening. Both Midnight's and Rogue's names were encased in red coloring. That meant that they were dead.

'_Where the fuck's Sting?!_' He screamed inwardly while looking around. Noticing a shadow on the ground, he looked upwards. What he saw almost made his eyes bulge out of their sockets. The purple piece of shit was holding Sting's mech, or what was left of it; it had been slashed in half and the other mech held it by its appendage, Sting's mech raised to its eye level. The purple mech's arm snapped as it grabbed Ghost two's chest and forcefully ripped open its hull. A large arm reached inside and emerged later with Sting loudly and painfully squirming in its grasp.

"What the… No! Stop! We surrender!" Natsu screamed through the Sanshōo's speakers.

"NATSU!" Sting's scream echoed through the wasteland, making Natsu's tear filled eyes go wide while gazing at him in shock, "Shut up." He grinned, "Ghost squad never surrenders, remember?" He said with a cough before the machine's grasp tightened and the young Ryuukishi was crushed. Natsu stared in horror as the purple mech unclenched its palm, letting Sting's crushed and deformed body fall to the ground with a sickening thud as blood dripped from its huge metallic fingers.

Natsu, upon seeing what he saw, lost it. He had lost his parents, his mentor and his whole squad to this one lone fucker. And he was unable to do anything to stop it when he faced it. He had been training for his whole life to take the sucker down, but his plan backfired on him. He was powerless, he couldn't do anything. He was to blame for their deaths.

A status report appeared in his retinas. An image of his mech glowing red. Its upper left appendage was missing, its whole body bleeping red; weapon's systems were inactive, propulsion systems damaged, driving systems destroyed and he barely had enough fuel for takeoff. There was no chance he would make it out of this alive.

That didn't mean he would spend his last seconds letting the motherfucker kill him without a fight.

He screamed, tears freely running down his face as he ignited his thrusters and flew directly upwards. His blade in his right hand, he charged and slashed at the monster. His eyes went agape when the monstrosity caught his blade with its hand like it was nothing. It turned the blade sideways, making Natsu's mech turn and pushed him back. The Ghost's enemy took Natsu's sword and stabbed the Sanshōo with it in the chest. It took the sword out and cut each and every single one of the red mechanoid's limbs off, including the head.

The Sanshōo dangled in the air for a while before descending and landing on the hard ground with a thud. The purple robot landed near it and glanced at its direction before kicking the red machine, sending it upwards. It threw Ghost's sword at it, skewering its backside as it crashed down and exploded.

The purple robot glanced one last time towards where what remained of the Sanshōo had landed before the metal plating obscuring its thrusters lifted and it ascended. It started flying before its motion trackers picked something up. A small life form rapidly closing in on what was left of the Sanshōo.

It was about to intercept when a voice blared in its comms, "Acnologia 1, come back to base. We will send a clean-up crew to take care of what is left of Ghost." The voice said and, without hesitating, the purple giant, now known as Acnologia, turned around and headed to its original destination.

* * *

_Crocus' military base, two hours after the incident with Ghost Squad._

General Jiemma watched with serious eyes at the four people that stood at attention. First Lieutenant Gray Fullbuster, Second Lieutenant Mavis 'Vice' Vermilion, Major Ultear Milkovich and Engineer Juvia Lokser. All four of them stared at the General with curious eyes, wondering why the old man had summoned them. After a few moments of awkward silence, Gray figured he should ask what the hell this geezer wanted, "Sir, why have you called us here? Is there a new mission?"

The older man shook his head before sighing. He ran his old hand down his face before his eyes met the curious dark-blue eyes of the First Lieutenant, "I suggest you steel yourself for what I am about to tell you." He said and Gray quirked an eyebrow, "Ghost squad: Firs Lieutenant Natsu Dragneel, Staff Sergeant Sting Eucliffe, Senior Master Sergeant Rogue Cheney and Master Sergeant Midnight are MIA, presumed dead."

All four of their eyes widened. Mavis's hand moved to cover her mouth as she could feel a tear run down her cheek. Gray, on the other hand, chuckled humorlessly, "Oi, oi, stop kidding around, old man. There's no way in hell Ghost could be taken down." He said, venom dripping from his words, daring the old man to repeat what he had just said.

"Gray…" Ultear muttered as she watched him. She couldn't believe what she just heard, it was impossible. Natsu wouldn't be taken down. There was just no way.

"Oi! Tell me that what you just said was a bad joke!" Gray shouted at the old man's face as he lifted him up by his collar.

"Calm down, First Lieutenant!" Jiemma ordered sternly.

"Fuck you!" The brunette screamed back as he pushed the old man away, "There is _no fucking way _that Natsu would go down so easily!" He growled, his voice shook slightly. He turned around and marched towards the room's exit.

"Gray, stop." Ultear whispered as she placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Shut up!" He screamed back as he swatted her hand away, "I need to find him! Natsu's not dead!"

"Guards! Restrain him!" Jiemma shouted before the door opened and two white uniform wearing soldiers entered the room.

One of them tried to grab Gray's arms and restrain him but was denied when the brunette punched him square on the face, knocking him out instantly. So much for a guard. The other tried to come from the Ryuukishi's backside but he backhanded him, making the guard take a few steps back. Gray turned around and grabbed the handgun holstered on the guard's waist. He pointed it at the guard and snarled, "Natsu… no, Ghost squad isn't dead! There is no way they would die after promising that they would come back!"

"Fullbuster! Lower the weapon! Now!" Jiemma ordered, "Natsu Dragneel and his squad are dead! They were killed by the rebels who rigged a V2 rocket! Our Intel was wrong; the place wasn't an Etherion dig site!"

Gray moved to aim at the General, surprising everyone present, "Then it is your fault!" He laughed slightly, his eyes wide as tears collected in their corners. He was losing it, "You were the one who sent them on that mission! And the rebels had a V2? That's impossible!" He cocked back the safety trigger as his hair covered his eyes, "You're to blame." He growled out and placed his finger against the trigger.

Surprising him, a hand pushed against Gray's gun forcefully, pushing it away before Gray could shoot at the General. The shot was fired and it flew past the side of Jiemma's head. Gray received an elbow to the side of his head as one of his arms was bent backwards, "Guard! Help me!" Ultear ordered, the guard almost instantly jumping to Gray, taking his firearm forcefully and bending his other arm behind his back.

"Gray! Calm down! You're not helping anyone by lashing out like this!" The Major shouted while trying her best to hold the brunette's arms down. He was strong, he wasn't a Ryuukishi pilot for nothing.

"Shut up! Let me go! It's that bastard's fault Natsu's probably lying injured somewhere!" Gray screamed as tears streamed down his face. He started bashing his head against the concrete floor, "He's alive! I know he is! I have to find him!" He kept screaming frantically, his forehead started bleeding from the constant bashing against the ground. He had lost it.

Ultear grabbed Gray's hair and forcefully smashed his head against the floor even harder, making the man lose his consciousness. Ultear felt as mad as Gray, but blaming the General for what happened was too irrational. It was the rebellion's fault. They placed an elaborate trap; their intention was probably to erase one of the best squads the military could offer! This was unforgivable!

She let go of Gray's arms and stood up, her hair covering her eyes, "General, sir, permission to go look for First Lieutenant Dragneel." She asked, no, more like demanded, sternly.

"Denied." Jiemma said, surprising everyone in the room, "I will not risk losing more people to the rebel's advances! Losing Ghost squad was a great blow to the military, but we must not falter! We will destroy the rebels for everything they have done!" He commanded with a raised voice, Mavis's face visibly changing to a scowl as she glared at the General with tear filled eyes. The older man looked at the unconscious brunette, "Take him to a cell, have someone take care of the wound on his head. He is a valuable soldier and we cannot lose him as well." He ordered and the guard that was still conscious nodded. He picked up both the other guard and Gray, with the help of Ultear, and dragged them out of the room.

All the while Juvia was holding back her tears. She couldn't bear to see Gray like this, nor could she hear what happened to Natsu. She didn't believe it. No, there was simply no way that could happen. Natsu wouldn't die like this, no, he couldn't. Without even gracing the General with a word, she turned on her heels and left the room, slamming the door behind her shut.

The two people left in the room, Mavis and Jiemma, stared at each other. Mavis glared holes at the man while he watched her with amusement, "You will pay, General." Mavis growled out before she turned around and left the room as well.

A smirk graced the older man's features, "I wonder about that."

The blonde girl walked to her quarters, anger and sadness filling her very being as she sobbed quietly, "First you take away Lyon and now Natsu..." She cried silently, "You and _that thing_ will _die_, General. I promise you that."

* * *

Juvia sat down on her chair near her computer and watched with sad eyes at the empty spot where Natsu's mech once stood. She imagined Natsu's grinning face before something dawned on her. She had planted a transceiver in Natsu's mech! Steeling herself, she checked her computer. The transceiver didn't send her any messages and she couldn't get any readings on Natsu's vitals. She sighed sadly before fiddling with her computer some more. Juvia looked up Natsu's last movements and saw the Sanshōo's actions before the transceiver died. She glared daggers at her own computer.

The woman had to look for him. She didn't believe that he died and she didn't care if she would go AWOL. Natsu was the one who brought her into the army in the first place. She worked for him, not the military. She was his engineer, not theirs. Nodding to herself, she pressed some buttons on her computer before a gate in the hangar opened to show a large light-blue mech, something she worked on in her spare time. She stood up and steeled herself. She would find him. Even if it was the last thing she did.


	4. Downfall

___**A/N:**__To my awesome readers: A thank you to everyone who has favorited/followed and reviewed this story thus far. This fic is seriously a challenge, I didn't think that writing about mechas and different military factions and the like could be this hard, but it's extremely fun nonetheless! I appreciate the kind gesture of the few who have reviewed this and I hope to see your thoughts on future chapters! Just so you know, this might end up an extremely long fic. *chuckles* And look at that awesome cover I got!_

_By the way, my beta, **Roxas.97**, is writing a prequel to this story! Say what?! A prequel to a story that hasn't even been finished yet?! It's weird! I know right? I should really stop talking to myself... Anywho! I'm kinda supervising that story and I can honestly say that it's friggin' awesome! Huge props to the guy for writing it! So... give it a read! It follows the story of Gajeel, two years before the events in this fic! It's called **Night Raid: Prequel to 'A Ghost's Conviction'**_

_Seriously, go take a peek. I assure you, you won't be disappointed!_

_And another thing. What, you thought I was done? Hell no! *laughs madly* Okay, so a good friend of mine by the name of **I.-.-.I Kuroyagi I.-.-.I** has published a new story called **Lost Cause: Ascender. **It is seriously an awesome Sci-Fi fic and from what he has told me it is going to be massive. Honestly, just reading the first part left me wanting more updates! It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite fics on the web and I urge you readers to go check it out and enjoy it as much as I have! I can guarantee that you'll like it!_

_We're bringing the Sci-Fi genre to life in the Fairy Tail archive! Vampires aren't Sci-Fi, so shoo!_

_Alright, enough of my ramblings and on with the actual chapter!_

* * *

A___ buttload of thanks to **Roxas.97** for betaing this!_**  
**

* * *

_**A Ghost's Conviction**  
_

* * *

_**Chapter four: Downfall**  
_

* * *

_Unknown location, the Wasteland, 2200hrs._

"_Don't die, okay?_"

Natsu's eyes shot open and he inhaled sharply as he returned to consciousness. His vision was blurry to the point where actually seeing something was made impossible. His hearing was damaged as well; the sounds he heard were muffled out and all he managed to hear was silent beeping. He figured it was a machine that monitored his heart rate.

He felt an oxygen mask on his face; explains why he could breathe after what had happened. He felt a hand grasp his right arm's wrist. He turned to the side and saw an old man's face, his eyes staring at him worriedly. He didn't know him, nor did he care who the man was.

Natsu's own onyx eyes stared back at the old man's black ones. The pinkette's breath was ragged; he coughed as he tried to formulate a sentence, "G-Ghost… my f-friends…" He coughed again, blood splattering from his throat onto the oxygen mask, "How…" He coughed again and felt the man squeeze his wrist gently. Natsu glanced up at his face and barely managed to make out that the man was shaking his head.

Natsu's head fell back onto the pillow when he saw the older man's response. His heart fell. So what he saw wasn't a bad dream but it had actually happened. He couldn't believe it. His whole team was dead because he lost his cool. Maybe, just maybe, if he had controlled himself and formed a decent plan they might have defeated that purple bastard or they would have been able to simply retreat.

He felt a tear run down the side of his face and tried covering his eyes with his arm but, to his displeasure, he couldn't feel his left appendage. He didn't have the strength to look up and see why and, at that moment, he didn't even care. His thoughts were somewhere else entirely. He coughed up some blood again and gritted his teeth as he felt immeasurable pain run through his whole body; main areas being his pelvis and his left shoulder. He glanced to his right side and saw the old man fiddling with a syringe. Painkillers, he guessed. The needle went into a vein near his elbow and in a matter of seconds he could feel his consciousness fading again. He just hoped he would wake up again. He made a promise, after all.

* * *

_New Fiore, capital Crocus, holding cells, 2330hrs._

A loud and tired sigh echoed against the dimly lit cell's walls. A man with black hair sat on the ground, his back against the wall, his left leg raised up so he could use it as support with his arm on his knee. He scratched the back of his head with his right hand which had bloody knuckles; same as his other arm. He hissed quietly when his appendage accidentally touched the cold concrete wall with his injured fists. Sometimes he wished he wasn't so easily pissed off.

The loud creaking of his cell's door opening made him glance to its direction, his bloodshot eyes gazing at the slowly opening door and the light shining through it made him groan in annoyance. The same light shone in his face until the figure of a man obscured its path, "Lieutenant, sir. Command has ordered that you be present in the officers' meeting." The guard said, making the raven-haired man groan even louder.

"What the hell do they want now?" He growled quietly while standing up, trying to think of a decent reason as to why he was invited somewhere he shouldn't be. The Lieutenant walked towards the cell's exit and his features were illuminated by the light shining outside. Dark hair, dark-blue eyes and a white military issued uniform. His forehead was bandaged and his knuckles were bloody.

As he exited, he glanced to the side and almost snarled at the guard. He was staring at him with _that _look. That look of pity etched in his eyes. He didn't need pity, nor did he need comforting, "Guard, what were your orders?" He asked while glaring at the man, making the guard cringe at his tone and stare.

"I was ordered by General Jiemma to call you to the meeting and later continue with my duties, sir." He announced with tension in his voice.

"What were your duties then?"

"To patrol the western section of this building, s…" He was cut short when Gray grabbed his face with his palm and smashed it against a wall, effectively knocking the guard out.

He cracked his knuckles and stretched, making his neck and back pop, "Sorry, I just felt like bashing someone's head open." He said as he took out what was left of the bandages that the nurse left him out of his jacket's pocket and wrapped them around his fists. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he hunched over slightly before making his way to the Command Center. Whatever the old man was going to say better be fucking amazing.

The raven-haired man walked through the many underground corridors of the Ryuukishi base, glaring at anyone who dared to even take a simple glance at him. He didn't have the patience for it today nor was he in the mood to explain to his superiors why he got into multiple fights that would, most definitely, be bloody.

After a near five minutes of strolling down the same boring corridors he finally reached a set of double doors. Pressing his palm against the touchpad near it, the light above the door lit up green in affirmation before the doors slid open and he entered. He was met with Jiemma's impassive old eyes upon entrance. The door behind him closed shut as he observed the people present. He saw Ultear who sat alone in silence, her eyes covered by her hair as she kept staring at the floor. Gray frowned; she was probably taking this as hard as he was.

Looking around, he saw multiple high ranking officers, from Majors to Lieutenant Generals. A thought came to mind as he watched the many people present; what did they want with him, a simple Lieutenant?

Rather than taking a seat, Gray leaned on a wall next to the door and folded his arms while watching the General curiously.

The old man gave everyone present one last glance before coughing, "Finally, everyone is here. Now we can discuss the matter at hand. Major General Freed, if you would." Jiemma gestured as a long green haired man with blue eyes nodded. A circular emblem on the side of his jacket's bicep of a dragon in its middle that was surrounded by letters saying 'Intelligence dept.'

The Major General coughed before eyeing some documents in his hands. He passed them around and everyone but two people showed interest in them, the two being Ultear and Gray, "There has been a change in rebel movement recently." He informed while the people gathered checked the documents they received, "The northern rebellion squadrons are mobilizing and moving towards the east. The way the other forces are gathering in their capital makes me suspect an invading force."

A loud yawn was heard from a red haired man, his one eye open to look through the document while his other eye had a scar running along it and was closed shut. He ran a hand through his hair as his single eye looked through the document groggily, "That can't be right." He said and yawned again, "With the amount of forces they're amassing it would take at least a month for them to prepare their weapons in Magnolia and commence an attack on the wall." He said and threw the documents forward, making them slide through the table as he leaned back on his chair and lifted his feet on the table while folding his arms behind his head, "Surely they don't expect us to sit idly by and let them attack us, now do they?"

Another person with tanned skin, brown hair and a prominent goatee hummed, his brown eyes locked on the document in front of him, "I have to agree with the Lieutenant General; an attack on Crocus does not seem likely given the amount of time they would need to prepare. But the movements of their northern section worry me. The trajectory of their heading seems as though they are heading towards General Zero's location."

Freed nodded, "That is correct and that is why it is the main concern of this meeting. If the rebels manage to overtake General Zero's base of operations they will, most definitely, make it their rally point and will continue to breach the wall. Given the weapons the General has under his command, breaching the wall would be a meager task."

"We have to ready ourselves for an imminent rebel invasion." General Jiemma spoke, "Even if we send reinforcements to General Zero's location, the rebels have proven time and time again that their resourcefulness is unmatched by anyone. Given the event of the General's base being overrun occurs, Crocus will be next. That is why I have called you all here." He said and the eight people present, Gray included, locked their eyes on the old man and waited to hear what he had to say next.

"Major General." Jiemma called as he turned to the green haired man, "Relay everything we have discovered regarding rebel movements to General Zero and inform him about a possible attack." He said.

"Understood." Freed replied.

"Brigadier General Bluenote." The General called and a man with black hair that was tied in an extremely large pony tail and what seemed to be silver eyes nodded for the General to continue, "You are to requisition the General fifteen drone-class units with air to ground capabilities and ten air to air fighters, fully equipped. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir." Bluenote replied with a grin as he imagined the destruction his air to ground bombs would cause.

"Colonel Azuma." This time the tan skinned man from before stood at attention, "You are to requisition twenty T-20s and a full battalion of foot soldiers for the General."

"Sir." Azuma nodded an affirmative as Jiemma turned to the red haired man that had spoken before.

"Lieutenant General Cobra." He called and the man, now known as Cobra, hummed as a response, "The Royal Guard are to stay on duty at all times and are to harden their guard on the Council. We cannot afford to lose our leaders in any way as I fear the rebels might have spies in the capital." He ordered and Cobra only groaned as a response while waving his hand. Taking what he could get, the General sighed in exasperation before glancing to a black haired woman's direction, "Major Minerva, you are to increase the patrol rate of Crocus's Security Force and place your men around the city to cover each and every district. Live firearms are authorized."

The scowling woman smiled brightly at the mention of live firearms, "Aye aye sir." She said in a singsong voice.

"Major Ultear." Jiemma turned to the dark-purple haired woman and frowned at her lack of attention. He couldn't blame her though; he had heard that she and Natsu Dragneel had been close. He chose to ignore it, believing that she was listening to what he was saying, "You are to increase the efficiency of our Ryuukishi trainees. We need them to increase their capabilities as pilots and increase the rate at which they learn." He said and the Major nodded as a response.

"Lieutenant Colonel Rufus." The General called as he turned to the last person sitting at the round table, "How is the Etherion research doing?" He asked.

The blond man known as Rufus smirked, "It is coming along nicely. By the end of the week we will be able to mass produce Etherion plating for our armored units to preserve the lives of our pilots." He said with pride.

"That is good, now…" The General was interrupted.

"Oi, gramps, how long will I be standing here? What the hell do you want from me anyway?" Gray growled as he stared the man dead in the eyes.

"H-How dare you…!" Rufus was about to reprimand Gray for his rude tone but was stopped by the General waving his arm.

"That's right, my apologies." He said and Gray nodded, "First Lieutenant Gray Fullbuster, are you aware of the Special Ryuukishi Forces?" He asked and the brunette nodded in return. How can he not know them, his foster-brother's men, the men that Lyon had worked with for over five years and the men that haven't had a decent leader since his passing, "By Lieutenant General Cobra's recommendation and by more than half of the officers' agreement, we have decided to promote you to Commander of the Special Ryuukishi Forces." He said and Gray's eyes went wide as saucers at the revelation.

Gray looked at the red haired man and saw his one black eye staring at him with a smirk on his face. The Lieutenant General nodded in his direction and Gray gulped, "What makes you think that I would fit the role of leading Lyon's men?"

"That's exactly it. You are the most fit to lead the late Lieutenant General Vastia's men because you knew who he was; the best." Cobra commented, his eye still glued to the brunette, "Besides that, you know what loss is, so did Lyon and so do the personnel of the 'Knights' forces." The redhead concluded, referring to the Special Forces by their nickname.

Gray thought about it for a moment. It was true, Gray knew who Lyon was and he knew exactly how he felt. But that wasn't what drove him to accept the offer. It was the knowledge that he was going up the ranks, that he would be one step closer in stopping the bullshit that was going around the military and stop the rebellion that think themselves fighters for salvation when, in truth, all they do is inflict suffering among the people of Crocus. He was going to change the system and stop the fighting.

"I accept." Gray said without a moment's hesitation and noticed that Cobra's smirk morphed into a full blown grin.

"Good. Then there is the task of finding you a suitable second in command." Jiemma said with a nod to himself.

"Mavis Vermilion." Gray requested, although it sounded more like an order if anything. He noticed the old man started glaring at him at the mention of Vice's name and Gray returned the gesture with one of his own glares.

The General sighed and nodded again, "I understand. Mavis Vermilion will be stationed as Colonel Gray Fullbuster's second in command." He said and Gray quirked an eyebrow.

"Colonel… sir?" The brunette asked with surprise.

"Of course. Did you expect to become head of a division while being a Lieutenant?" The man smirked in amusement, making the brunette sigh.

"Whatever… sir. When do I meet my men?"

"Immediately. Lieutenant General, please lead the Colonel to the Knights' barracks." Jiemma said and Cobra jumped up from his seat eagerly.

"Understood." He said with excitement and strutted to where Gray was, "Come on, let's go, I was about to fall asleep in there." Cobra warned while yawning and went past him. Gray saluted the officers present before following the redhead.

After a few minutes of silent walking through the underground passageways, Gray decided to voice the question lurking in his mind, "Why did you recommend me for this position, sir?"

Cobra chuckled at the formality of Gray's speech, "No need to be so formal with me, Fullbuster, military tongue or speak or whatever the hell you call it is seriously making me want to vomit." The red haired man said while scratching the back of his head and Gray had to suppress a chuckle, "You know… Lyon and I were classmates back in the academy." He said, surprising the brunette, "Yeah. We were partners back when we were privates and we climbed up the ranks together. The only thing that annoys me is that he reached Lieutenant General before me… bastard. In any case, while we were training he would often tell me about you and Natsu Dragneel, the kids he was taking care of and who he considered as his younger siblings." Cobra continued and almost instantly noticed a change in Gray after mentioning the pinkette. Sighing, he spoke again, "When Lyon passed, I wanted to choose one of you two as his successors, Lyon would've wanted that, but now that Dragneel has passed as well my choice is obvious, isn't it?"

The new Colonel walked closely behind Cobra, listening intently to what the Lieutenant General was saying but not bothering to answer to any of his statements.

"I am deeply sorry for your loss, Fullbuster. I see that Major Milkovich isn't handling this any better." He said with a frown before suddenly stopping, almost making the brunette bump into the redhead. Suddenly, Cobra turned around and stared at Gray with an eye that seemed full of confidence, "Fullbuster… no, Gray. Don't you think that the reports of Dragneel's mission were falsified?" He asked and Gray's eyes shot open wide.

"W-What… what do you mean?" He asked, still not completely understanding what the higher ranking officer was meaning to say.

"You've read the reports, haven't you?" He asked and Gray nodded, "Do you really believe that what is said there is true? Personally, I find that there're too many sections covered in black ink. Experimental top secret weapons, they say." He sighed, "And besides, I've seen Dragneel's track record. Do you honestly believe that he would be taken down by something like this? A rigged V2 rocket? Please." Cobra spoke and Gray's eyes widened for the umpteenth time today. What he was saying made complete sense! Natsu has gotten out of worse situations unscathed and something like this killed him? That was impossible.

"So what do you make of all this?" The brunette asked the Lieutenant General who scratched his temples in thought.

"My hunch is that the General's deceiving us. I don't have any proof nor do I know a reason to, it's just what my gut is telling me." Cobra explained and Gray sweatdropped; this really wasn't much to go on.

"In any case, what do you want from me?"

"What I am trying to do is change the military from the inside. What the rebels are doing… I believe it is just. Trying to change the military is a noble idea, but the way they are going about doing it is wrong. It shouldn't be done by force. Violence permits violence, which is why to stop violence a calm and peaceful solution is needed. That is why I am asking for your aid. I can't do this alone and I can't ask the other officers for help either." Cobra spoke.

Gray hummed, "What makes you think you can trust me?"

Cobra smirked, "You're Lyon's foster brother. That gives me enough reason to trust you." He said and turned around, continuing to the Knights' barracks, leaving a completely stunned Gray behind him. The brunette couldn't believe this man had so much trust in Lyon. It was unfathomable, "Come on, are you coming or not?" Cobra asked, pulling Gray out of his thoughts and making him follow the redhead.

* * *

_Magnolia, apartment complex, 2345hrs._

"I'm sorry to be disturbing you at such a late time, the Lieutenant General only informed me about the transfer half an hour ago." A young man, about twenty three years of age, with medium length blond hair and blue eyes said apologetically. His most notable feature was the mask covering the lower part of his face and the roman numerals tattooed on his fingers. His outfit consisted of a blue sleeveless jacket that went to his pelvis under which was a black sleeveless tee. On his arms, from the elbows to the wrists, were something that resembled armguards. He had loose blue cargo pants with military combat boots.

A woman with long wavy brown hair and brown eyes sighed in exasperation, "That asshole Laxus." She growled before smiling at the other. She wore a brown leather vest under which was a simple light blue camouflage patterned bikini top, brown skinny jeans and a pair of high-heels, "Don't worry about it, Sergeant, our Lieutenant's always up at this hour anyway. Hell, I think I'm the only person who tends to sleep in this squad." She said with a twitching eyebrow, remembering all the times her team's leader thought it would be fun to blast loud rock music in the middle of the night, "By the way, what's your name? All I know about you is your rank." She said while continuing on her way towards where her commander was.

"Dobengal." He simply said and she nodded, not seeing the reason to ask for a last name if he didn't want to give one.

"Nice to meet you Dobengal." She said as they neared the entrance to their squad's lodgings. She gripped the door knob and turned, opening the large double doors, "My name's Cana Alberona, welcome to Night Raid."

The blond was met with the sight of an extremely messy and large room. It had empty bottles, scattered mech parts, weapons, clothes and everything of the like littering every inch of the floor. The room was large, going forward and descending as it got further in a form of steps. On the steps was a large red couch; in front of it was a wooden table with dismantled gun parts scattered around the wooden surface.

Dobengal saw a man with long spiky black hair sitting on the couch, his broad and naked back turned to them, "I always tell them to clean this place up. Do they listen? Hell no." Cana complained with annoyance etched in her voice, "Oi, Gajeel, we've got a new addition to the team." She called, making the black haired man turn to them, showing he had an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

His spiky hair was slicked back and everything about this man screamed… different. His eyes were red and his face had multiple piercings on them; four on each of his eyebrows, three on the lower part of each ear, two on each side of his nose and one on his chin. He had a red bandana with graffiti styled crosses on his forehead, holding his hair slicked back while two large bangs framed his face from the outer sides of his cheeks. He stood up; his upper part was naked to reveal a broad, muscular chest. He wore brown loose cargo pants held by a studded belt around his waist and the pants were tucked inside studded black boots with their sides showing small metal protrusions that resembled bolts.

The blond man bowed slightly, "Sergeant Dobengal, sir. I was recently transferred to Night Raid under Lieutenant General Laxus's orders." He said, making the black-haired man hum.

"First Lieutenant Gajeel Redfox. Nice to meet ya rookie." He said with a wave of his hand as he sat back down on the sofa, "Make yourself at home in this pile of shit cause it's all we've got. And Cana, it's Mest's turn to clean, go kick his ass instead of pestering me about it." He said lazily, making the brown-haired woman growl quietly.

"You could still clean the place up even if it's not your turn." She said.

"I don't see you cleaning when it's not your turn." He commented, making the woman pout.

"Fine, whatever." Cana said as she sat down on a chair she found to be clean.

Gajeel picked up a lighter and lit his cigarette, inhaling deeply before exhaling a cloud of grey smoke. He placed the lighter back on the table and continued cleaning the barrel of his disassembled handgun.

"What are my duties, sir?" Dobengal asked, failing to figure out what he was supposed to do in the meantime.

Gajeel quirked an eyebrow before chuckling at the question, "How should I know? Go to sleep, get drunk, go pick some chicks up, whatever floats your boat until we get a mission." He said, not bothering to turn back as he puffed out more smoke. A thought crossed his mind before he smirked, "You know what? I have a mission for you, rookie. See that apparatus over there?" He asked while motioning to his left with his head, "Go turn it on and play the first song." He said, making Cana facepalm and Dobengal look at her quizzically.

"Really, Gajeel? You're abusing the rookie like this? Not to mention that it's almost twelve at night?" She deadpanned.

Gajeel grinned as he took his cigarette in between his fingers, "And Dobby? Don't forget to rev it up to max volume. Because I would _hate _it if Laxus _didn't _hear it." He said, mentally laughing his ass off as Cana groaned over dramatically.

Dobengal quirked an eyebrow at the nickname but decided to pay it no mind. He walked through the room to the apparatus his superior officer mentioned; carefully trying to not step on anything that might be of importance to his new team. He neared it and inspected the machine. Wiping off the dust with his palm, he searched for the 'play' button and, when he found it, he pressed it and turned the volume wheel, making sure to turn it as much as he could.

He was met with extremely loud music from every corner of the room, blaring out a hard beat which was followed by more electronic sounds and a male voice singing the lyrics.

_Self-medicating, craving punishment. Blaming myself for a world on fire.  
No more shame, no more pity. No more. We rise from the ashes._

Gajeel grinned as the loud rock music reverberated through the room, "That's more like it." He said as the blond man covered his ears so they wouldn't accidentally get damaged. Dobengal looked at the brown-haired woman curiously and was met with her blank stare.

"Thanks for that, rookie. Now the whole building will start bitching about the music again." She groaned, "Guess another sleepless night awaits."

"Aw, don't cry Cana-_chan_, you know you can always sleep by my side, I'll keep you _warm_." He said with as much suggestiveness as he could muster in his words.

The woman sighed, "You know, that wouldn't be half bad if you didn't stink of smoke."

Gajeel turned to face her, his face feigning hurt before a grin plastered itself on his face, "You know the smell turns you on." He said, making her facepalm to which he only laughed.

Dobengal watched the exchange curiously, not quite understanding why the woman turned down Gajeel's suggestion. He was only trying to help her by keeping her warm, right? What other meaning could there be?

Suddenly, the door to the lodgings smashed open violently and a man with black hair appeared. His hair was short, almost shaved, complete with mildly long sideburns. He had big emerald green eyes and three distinctive scars on the left side of his face. He wore a simple blue tee, brown pants and black combat boots, "Lt!" He shouted upon entering.

"What is it, Mest?" Gajeel asked, not even minding to turn to look at his subordinate.

"We have news from the spy Laxus planted in New Fiore. It's important!" He shouted and Gajeel instantly turned to face him. Seeing Mest's expression twisted into a worried one Gajeel quickly stood up and marched to the music player to lower the volume.

"What did she say?" Gajeel asked when the music was barely audible and was nothing more than background noise. He exhaled a cloud of smoke while he looked at the panting man.

"They found a guy to take over NF's Special Forces division and are reinforcing their front. It seems they know about Gildie's plan." He said, making Gajeel narrow his eyes slightly, "And…"

"And?" Gajeel asked, urging his team mate to continue.

"Ghost's KIA." He said and Gajeel accidentally broke his cigarette in two with his index finger after hearing those words. He stared wide-eyed at Mest before he lowered his head and his hair slightly covered his eyes.

Only two questions were in his mind right now.

"How?" He asked, his head still lowered.

Both Cana and Mest watched their superior officer with worried expressions, "They were caught in a trap. A rigged V2 missile."

"By who?" Gajeel asked his second question.

"Us. The rebellion." The black-haired man replied before hearing a gasp from Cana.

"But that's impossible. We haven't had a V2 since a year ago." The brown haired woman said under her breath but loud enough so everybody could hear.

"That's what I said!" Mest shouted back before calming himself, "Our source doesn't believe it either. She said the old fart Jiemma might have had a hand in it."

Gajeel threw what was left of his cigarette on the floor and stepped on it, effectively putting it out. He walked towards the exit of the room and grabbed his black leather vest from the hangar.

"Where are you going?" Cana asked with worry etched in her voice.

"Out." Gajeel said through clenched teeth, "I need a drink." He added and left, loudly shutting the door closed behind him.

Cana sighed, "I'll go check on him and make sure he doesn't do something stupid." The woman said as she stood up and opened the door before exiting and closing it behind her.

Mest sighed in exasperation and slumped down on the red couch Gajeel previously sat on. Dobengal walked towards him and watched him curiously. The black haired man glanced at the blond quizzically, "And who're you? You must be new."

"Sergeant Dobengal, sir. I'm a new addition to Night Raid; transferred today as per Lieutenant General Laxus Dreyar's orders." He introduced himself and Mest nodded.

"Master Sergeant Mest Gryder. Pleasure to meet you Dobby." Mest said with a smile. Dobengal scratched the back of his head at the same nickname Gajeel gave him but, again, paid it no mind.

A moment of silence followed before the blond Sergeant decided to ask the question that has been assaulting his mind, "Who... what is Ghost?"

Mest stared at the blond with a slight glint of confusion before he realized, "Oh, that's right, you just joined." He chuckled to himself, "They are… _were _military. Definitely one of the best." He answered solemnly.

Dobengal raised a quizzical eyebrow, "Military, sir…? Then why did Lieutenant Redfox seem so…_ sad_?"

Mest sighed before an equally sad expression graced his features, "The guys weren't enemies. Hell, you could say that they were our allies, in a way… The leader of Ghost, Natsu Dragneel, and the leader of Night Raid, Gajeel, were rivals. Frienemies, you could call them. Though I'm not sure that word actually exists." He chuckled to himself humorlessly, "The guys have helped us out many times in the past. You could even say that Magnolia is still standing just because of them."

This caused the young blond Sergeant's eyes to widen, "S-so… the information that was leaked from the military just before their attack…?"

"Yeah." Mest interrupted with a nod of his head, "They gave us information about the surprise attack on Magnolia. They never did like meaningless bloodshed which is what would have definitely happened seeing as when the military attacks – they don't discriminate. Everyone's an enemy." He laughed silently, "You know, it's kind of ironic and funny in a weird way. The guys from Ghost were the only ones who could give us a decent fight. You'd think guys that strong would be all fanatic and shit about the military and Crocus, yet they seemed fairly decent. Hell, Natsu gave fewer shits about Crocus than he should of."

Dobengal frowned at the revelation. He couldn't believe the military still had people who actually cared about a human life and who would risk their own necks just to save a town in the wasteland. And he couldn't believe that such people have been killed by the same military, "I'm sorry." He told Mest whose response was a shake of his head.

Mest's expression slightly darkened as he seemed to be staring into nothingness, "Don't worry, Dobby. This just gave us one more reason to lynch the fucker."

* * *

_Ghost Squad's last known location, the Wasteland, 0100hrs._

Three mechs soared through the night's skies, below them was the endless wasteland engulfing the whole horizon. The sound of the mech's engines revving reverberated throughout the vast nothingness, almost forming a roar from their blaring thrusters.

They descended until the three mechanical monsters were just barely above ground as they reached their destination. A fire blazing around ruins, smoke erecting into the air, mechanical robot and tank parts scattered everywhere, blood splattered against the dirt and dust coating the hard ground.

The mechs flew through the chaos until they reached their target. A lone red mech lying on the ground, destroyed to bits. A military four-wheeler was stationed near it. Their sensors picked up a life form. The three mechanical giants readied their 20mm assault rifles and accelerated. In a few swift moments they landed in front of the scrap heap that was left of the Sanshōo and aimed their weapons at the single life form they spotted. A small girl with long dark-blue hair and large brown orbs for eyes. She shakily raised a simple handgun at the mechanical monsters and fired, but that did little to no good as the small projectiles simply bounced off of the robot's armor plating without leaving even a small dent.

The mechs aimed their guns at the helpless girl and their fingers were reaching for the triggers.

Suddenly, a sharp female's scream echoed from the sky, "NATSU!" A sound of three shots being fired echoed through the night as three sharp clangs joined into the fray. One of the three mechs was forced to step back from the impact of the shots before it exploded into nothingness.

A light-blue mech landed in front of the two remaining robots, its hand holding a large 40mm rifle. It pointed its gun at the other two before firing. The two that were left quickly ignited their thrusters and started strafing around the area to avoid the three round burst fire incoming from the light-blue mech's weapon. They stopped when the light-blue mech ran out of ammo and needed to reload. Quickly raising their 20mm rifles, the two remaining mechanoids sprayed what was left of their ammo at their target.

The new arrival quickly raised its arm and a pillar erected from the middle of its metallic forearm. Quickly circling around its appendage, the pillar-like metal object formed a shield that protected the blue machine from the incoming projectiles. They simply bounced off of the metal surface without leaving so much as a mark. That gave the blue machine enough time to reload its weapon.

It retracted the shield back into its metallic appendage before aiming at the two mechs again. It fired and the two others ignited their thrusters once again. They moved back, strafed sideways and jumped into the air before changing their strategy from defensive to offensive and charging the light-blue machine head on.

The blue mech reacted fast and pulled out the sword stuck in the Sanshōo's back. Dual wielding the two weapons, a rifle in its left hand and a sword in its right, just like the pilot of the Sanshōo used to, the blue mech charged to intercept the two incoming robots. It sprayed bullets from the weapon in its left hand in concentrated bursts until the two mechs were in close range. Lifting its arm, the blue machine slashed at one of the robots, effectively splitting it in half and making it explode. It turned to the other machine and it seemed as if the blue mech was glaring holes at it.

The last mech that was left drew a sword from its back and motioned for the other to attack. The blue mech complied and, activating its thrusters to their full capacity, charged its enemy. Both mechs slashed at each other and their swords met, clashing and grinding into one another as they went into a stalemate. Large sparks exploded from the grinding metal until a woman's scream could once again be heard from the light-blue mech's cockpit before small thrusters activated on its elbows, adding strength to its grip and increasing its propulsion, forcing the other mech to back away.

The blue machine wasted no time and raised its gun, spraying the burst fire rounds in concentrated bursts once more. The other mech, seeing no other way to escape, raised its sword and used it as a shield. It seemed to work, at first, but eventually the projectiles managed to pierce the blade and went through the sword and mech all together. The bullets penetrated the mech's hull and made contact with its pilot. A scream of pure agony reverberated through the wasteland before the last mech simply fell to the ground and exploded.

Without wasting any time, the light-blue mech that emerged victorious from its battle quickly turned back to the red giant lying on the bloody ground and ignited its thrusters to close the distance between the machines. It landed a few meters away from it and tried inspecting the damage it received until its motion sensors picked up movement. It noticed a military four-wheeler and raised its gun to meet the unknown life-form.

"Don't shoot!"

* * *

_Dat cliffhanger!_

_A note about Dobengal... or 'Dobby': I have no idea what color his hair or eyes are since that info ain't even on wikipedia. I just guessed, so yeah._

_Song used: **Combichrist - Never Surrender**_


	5. Perseverance

**_A/N: _**_It's been a long time, hasn't it? Well, I ain't gonna whine about it cause I don't think anyone wants to hear that shit for the bazillionth time. Anyway, I just gotta say, **RED**'s new album and the **318th** chapter of **Fairy Tail**... were both fucking awesome. Seriously. I was recently disappointed in Mashima, but making Gajeel do what he did... it was friggin' epic._

_Anyway, do me a favor and gimme your thoughts via review or something after reading this, M'kaaay?_

* * *

**_A Ghost's Conviction_  
**

* * *

**_Chapter five: Perseverance_  
**

* * *

_Magnolia, Saber's Den, 0420hrs._

A black haired man sat in the dimly lit bar on a barstool, downing what seemed to be his billionth glass of alcohol. He had lost count how many he had drank. Hell, he didn't even know what the fuck he was drinking, nor did he care. He just wanted to get drunk.

Does a man need a reason to drink? Well, technically one doesn't, but he had one. And a good one at that.

_Pour me, pour me, pour me another. It holds me, holds me. Like no other.  
One more drink, then I swear that I'm going home.  
Truth is, I don't really have a place to go.  
So pour me, pour me, pour me another._

When someone you care about, someone you consider a comrade, a friend, dies on you, what the hell are you supposed to do? This wasn't the first time someone he cared about had died, but that didn't make it any easier. When Romeo died, he… Gajeel didn't know what the fuck to do. After that mission that ended up in the little man's death, the black haired man just went on a complete bender. Sure, he wanted to bash New Fiore's skulls in, but due to that bitch, who he had resented his entire life and whose name he refused to usher, who did not allow him to leave the rebellion's capital, he could only drown himself in alcohol.

_Time just seems to go on and on. On and on.  
And on and on.  
Life inside a bottle all alone. All alone.  
The bottle's gone._

Gajeel cursed under his breath before downing what was left of his drink. He set the glass down and flicked his fingers, calling the attention of the barkeep. Pointing towards the glass, Gajeel motioned for the man to fill his glass again. The barkeeper was about to protest, obviously saying that the black haired man had had enough, but he was instantly silenced by Gajeel's snarl. He was in no mood to argue with the guy over a stupid drink. Sighing, the man poured Gajeel another glass of who-knows-or-cares-what and Night Raid's ace instantly put the drink to his lips and drank almost half in one go.

_What's life inside a bottle if it's gone?_

The black haired man sighed tiredly as he held his forehead with his hand, supporting it with his elbow on the bar. His hair covering his eyes, he could feel himself going deeper into depression than he thought he would, '_God damn it, I will not…!_' He shouted at himself mentally, berating himself for being so weak.

And as if on cue when Gajeel was just about to lose it, he felt a hand on his shoulder, a hand he had felt all too many times to not recognize who it belonged to, "Cana." He said tiredly, although he couldn't lie; he was happy as hell she decided to keep him company.

"I'll have whatever he's having. His tab." The brown haired woman told the barkeep as she sat down on a barstool next to the black haired man.

"Uhh… " The barkeeper coughed, "What Gajeel-san is having is tequila, whiskey, vodka and brandy mixed into one. Are you sure about having the same?"

Gajeel quirked an eyebrow at this, '_I am? Well… whatever._' He thought apathetically, shrugging away the thought that he was in such a sorry state that he couldn't even tell what sort of concoction he was drinking.

The woman chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, gimme that." She said, making the barkeeper sweatdrop before he groaned in annoyance and filled a glass with the same drink Gajeel was drinking before passing it to her. She gulped down, furrowing her eyebrows at the extremely strong taste before sighing in content as the liquid went down her throat. She placed the glass on the bar and glanced at Gajeel curiously, frowning at the pathetic state he was in.

He was supporting his head with his hand, his eyes watching the glass he held in his hand emotionlessly. Cana nudged him in the arm and groaned in annoyance at the lack of response from the man. She tried pinching him, but that didn't work either. Slowly getting agitated, she pushed her finger against his cheek, finally gaining his attention. He glanced at her and she stared at him blankly before her gaze softened, "You want to talk about it?"

"No." Gajeel replied sharply, annoying the brown haired woman further.

"Drowning yourself in alcohol won't help, you know." Cana said, trying her best to suppress a growl that threatened to escape her throat at the man's antics.

"Maybe not, but it sure makes it a helluva lot easier." He stated dryly and drank what was left of his drink, motioning for the barkeep to fill it up again and he did so, without arguing this time too.

A few moments of pure silence passed as the music reverberating through the bar engulfed them. Gajeel simply listened to the tunes being played and slowly made the contents of his glass fade, as opposed to Cana who, surprisingly, hasn't even finished half of her drink.

Gajeel groaned over dramatically, feeling as if he was being unfair to her as he smashed the drink on the bar, almost shattering it to pieces in the process. The brown haired woman was slightly taken by surprise because of the action but she could recognize that Gajeel wanted to say something so she gave him time.

"It… it kinda feels like back then. You know, when Romeo died…" The black haired man admitted, making the woman scowl before she gulped down on her drink too. Romeo Conbolt, a person Gajeel, Cana and Mest all considered as a family member, a younger brother. They had known him ever since he was just a kid and all of them were completely heartbroken when he passed away during a mission gone wrong.

"I mean, it's not like I knew that Salamander on a really personal level, it's just… the guy did so much for the rebellion even though he was Army… You don't see that often." He said tiredly.

Cana shook her head, "No, you don't."

"Heh, that bastard." Gajeel chuckled humorlessly, "I remember my first fight with him like it was yesterday. You remember it, right? Back when Ikaruga was with us." He asked and the woman nodded as a reply, "I mean, that fight… it had been a long time since someone could stand up to me in a fight. Hell, it had been a long time since someone could make me feel in danger of dying in my mech." He said, pausing for a drink, "No matter that, the asshole actually saved the whole rebellion once." He continued, his voice gradually becoming shakier.

Cana put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it tightly, reminding the black haired man that he wasn't alone. His own hand rising to place it on top of hers and squeezed it as well, "You know, I've been wondering about this whole situation." She said, making the man give a dry laugh.

"What's there to wonder? He's dead." He said, a permanent scowl etched on his features as he continued to stare at the drink in his hands.

"Do you really believe that?" Cana asked, making the black haired man raise a curious eyebrow, "It's a fact that the reports we get from New Fiore aren't always accurate. AND our source says that he was killed by New Fiore itself? Doesn't that seem a bit odd to you?"

"It does, obviously. What's your point?"

She sighed, "Look, you know first-hand how sturdy and resourceful that guy can be. Do you really believe he'd go down so easily after all the shit he's been through?"

The man smirked at her words but continued to remain silent, refusing to entertain the idea of the pinkette actually surviving. He couldn't allow himself to be optimistic to just be let down once again. No, he couldn't go through that. As strong as he was, he couldn't handle all that bullshit again.

Cana sighed for the umpteenth time this night. She finished her drink and stood up, "Come on, enough moping around, let's go." She said, no, ordered as she made her way towards the bar's exit.

Gajeel groaned over dramatically before finishing his drink and standing up himself, feeling slightly dizzy from the whole intake of alcohol. It was funny how much someone can hold his liquor when the mood basically requires him to drink. He nodded towards the barkeep before turning around and leaving.

Outside the bar, Gajeel saw Cana standing and watching him with concern etched in her eyes. He sighed, figuring how lucky he was to land such a girl that would pester him about his well-being even though he indirectly flipped her off. Thinking about her, he remembered her words about the pinkette and a certain memory couldn't help but pop into his head.

'_Fucking shut up and listen to me, Gajeel! Do you trust me? Cause if you don't, you, Cana, Mest... the rebellion and Magnolia itself will be blown to fucking pieces!_'

He smiled wholeheartedly at the memory, thinking it weird that his very first real rival would actually be worried for his life. No, not his life, the whole rebellion's well-being. Later on, he realized what motivated that train of thought and he couldn't help but see the pinkette in a new light. Even if he still considered him as his rival, he would have done anything to repay the favor Natsu did to him by saving his friends.

He glanced up at the night's sky, locking his eyes on the full moon, '_Hey, fucker, if, by any chance, you're actually alive… Gah, just fucking die._' He thought, grinning at his own weakness to taunt the guy even when he was possibly KIA.

* * *

_Unknown location, the Wasteland_

His eyes slowly opening, Natsu looked around. His vision was blurry, he couldn't see anything clearly. How long was he out for? He didn't know, but he could tell it was daytime from the light shining through the window of the room he was in. But, besides the time, where the hell was he anyway? He remembered waking up before; an old man held his arm and told him his team didn't make it.

The pinkette felt a sudden pain in his chest, as if something had just crushed his heart. He had lost his team, his entire team because he lost his cool. Their last mission ended with Natsu's failure and almost cost the lives of his friends. This time though, his failure actually cost them gravely. The pain in his heart intensifying, he started hating himself. He was a failure, both as a friend and a lieutenant, a team leader.

He closed his eyes again, wishing that he would just die and join his teammates. He couldn't allow himself to live when his team died because of his stupidity.

"_Don't die, okay?_"

Natsu's eyes shot open at the remembrance of the words Ultear said just before he left New Fiore's Ryuukishi hangar. No, he couldn't die. She wouldn't want him to die, nor would his team want him to die. Midnight, Rogue and Sting. All three of them would want Natsu to keep on living. To go through with what he told them he would; to change New Fiore completely and stop this bullshit war with the rebellion. Besides that, the purple fucker that killed his team and almost killed him; he was going to pay. Natsu was going to hunt him down and destroy him for what he did to his parents and friends. Whatever happened and whatever he had to do, Natsu was going to _obliterate _him.

His mind was focused on one thing and one thing only – revenge.

Fueled by this, Natsu slowly leaned up, grabbing his sides with his right arm, thinking that something was wrong when he couldn't feel his left appendage. Turning his head to the side, his eyes widened, '_It's… gone?_' The pinkette started breathing heavily when he saw his shoulder was bandaged and his left arm was… missing.

He grasped his face with his palm. Now he remembered. When he was impaled by his own sword, it cut straight through his shoulder, dismembering his left appendage from his body. The explosion that followed had instantly closed that wound by burning it shut. He remembered it hurting like a motherfucker, but he was glad that it happened seeing as it kept him from bleeding to death.

He scowled at the lack of feeling from his left appendage. His arm was gone; what the hell was he supposed to do now? He was in the middle of nowhere and, judging from the equipment they had here, there was absolutely no way they could heal his arm. He grit his teeth in anger, getting agitated more and more by the second while thinking about everything the purple bastard had done to him. He was going to pay in one way or another.

He sat up and shifted his position so his feet could touch the floor. The pinkette was feeling slightly better than when he had woken up earlier. His vision was finally back to normal and his head wasn't pounding as hard. His whole body still hurt all over, but it was bearable; nothing he hadn't faced before.

Seeing as he didn't have a left arm, he forcefully ripped out the IV tubes strapped to his right arm by cocking the arm back. He stared solemnly at the blood slowly flowing out of where the tubes were injected before the door to his ward opened to reveal a short dark-blue haired girl, her brown eyes widening when she noticed that the pinkette was up. Onyx eyes met brown ones and they stared at each other curiously before a blue haired woman came walking in behind the girl, her dark-blue eyes widening as well at the sight of Natsu and her jaw fell slightly. She almost instantly ran past the smaller girl and lunged in to hug the pinkette.

"Natsu… I thought you…" She muttered silently while embracing the pinkette. A pat on the back caught her attention before she leaned back and saw Natsu's sincere smile.

"I'm fine, Juvia. This is nothing that I can't handle." He said, making the woman frown at his words when she noticed the state he was in. His body was bruised and burned, he was almost completely covered in bandages. His eyes had bags under them and his features simply screamed that he was dead tired. What really caught her attention was the lack of Natsu's left arm.

"B-but you… Your arm…" She muttered again, her dark-blue eyes focusing on his bandaged up shoulder.

It was impossible to miss the frown covering the injured Ryuukishi's features. He sighed tiredly, "I know… It sucks, but I have to try to live past this, right? For Ghost team's sake." He said before tilting his head to look to the side.

Juvia's eyes widened at what he said. She remembered what had happened to the rest of Ghost squad. She remembered the battlefield she saw when she arrived. Fire, dust, debris, destruction, blood, dismembered limbs, corpses, death, chaos. Everything was summed up into one bloody mess. The woman couldn't believe what had happened, nor could she even comprehend how the battle unfolded. It was simply beyond her understanding how four mechs could cause so much chaos and then be destroyed as if they were nothing.

"I'm sorry, Natsu…" She whimpered as she rested her forehead on the crook of his neck, "If I had only made your mechs better, then maybe…"

Juvia was interrupted by a pat on her back, "No, Juvia. It was my fault that what happened – happened. You aren't to blame for this, I am. I lost my cool, I kept attacking, I didn't give the order to retreat… I made them stick their necks out for me; I am the cause of their deaths."

The blue haired woman watched as Natsu's head slumped down, his eyes focused on the ground below them, "It was my fault we fought that purple mech and it was my fault we lost…" He raised his head and gazed at her, seriousness etched in his onyx-black orbs, "But I give you my word, the next time I see that bastard… I'm going to return the favor. Hundred-fold."

Juvia stared at him curiously before smiling. She knew that revenge didn't lead anyone to any place, but it was a hell of a lot better to see him have a goal, a bloody one, mind you, but a goal nonetheless. Natsu wasn't down. He may have lost and he may have fallen, but it was obvious that he wasn't intending to stay down.

They continued to stare at each other before finally noticing something. Natsu was _completely _naked. Now, even though he had been out these past few days, he was still a man. And what do men have every morning that they wake up?

Aye, morning wood.

The woman's eyes widened at what she saw as she leaned back, a blush covering her features. Natsu stared at her in confusion before she pointed her finger down. He tilted his head downwards and, surprisingly, he only chuckled, a small blush covering his features.

Okay, even if he did that, Natsu was completely stumped. He had just woken up, obviously he had… well, a boner; Juvia was hugging him and the fact that her breasts had been squeezing against him didn't help him at all. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

What really surprised him was what Juvia did next. Her mind had gotten completely fuzzy as the blush that covered her cheeks slightly expanded. Her left hand's index finger touched Natsu's chest and slowly brushed downwards. Natsu gulped; what the _fuck _was she doing?

Her finger continued on its path, making the pinkette shiver from the sensation. He felt her finger roaming down his chest, his stomach, almost reaching his groin area. Just before she reached his manhood, Natsu finally composed himself and grasped her arm, stopping her before this got out of hand. Or in hand... whatever.

The blue haired woman glanced up curiously at Natsu's eyes, a blush covering his features as he chuckled lightly, "You know, I'd love to entertain the thought, but we're not alone and, well, besides the fact that she's a minor, I don't think she really wants to see this."

The woman's eyes widened when she realized that the little girl from before was staring at them with a blush on her features, "Oh! I'm sorry!" She said in embarrassment as she covered Natsu's manhood with the covers on the bed and jumped off of the bed, leaving the room and pushing the little girl out with her, "We'll let you change." She said hurriedly and left, closing the door shut behind her.

Natsu chuckled at her antics. Something like that had happened before but it never escalated. He had to wonder, what Juvia was like… well, you know, in bed. He suddenly shook his head; this wasn't the time to be thinking about sex. What the hell was he doing? He facepalmed; he probably asked himself that question over a hundred times during this morning alone.

He stood up, feeling slightly lightheaded, before noticing the folded clothes set on a table on the opposite side of the room. He carefully wobbled towards the table and, when there, he instantly took the boxers placed there and put them on, feeling relieved for what little privacy they provided. He stared at the clothes and tsked sharply; doing this with one arm was going to be annoying.

He picked up a pair of pants and growled at the sight of them, '_Okay, leather clothing I like, but SKINNY leather jeans? Come on, really? Skinny…?_' He groaned in annoyance but felt as if he shouldn't complain. The people that had taken him in had not only treated him but gave him warm clothing. He really shouldn't bitch about the clothes not being to his liking.

He slipped the black leather jeans on as best he could with one arm before putting on some socks. He found a pair of black leather boots and put them on as well. They ended at his mid shin so he tucked the jeans inside of the boots. Standing back up, he saw a grey tank top and quickly but carefully shoved it on himself, trying not to upset his wounds as best he could.

Turning to the side, he saw a mirror and walked towards it, inspecting how he looked. He frowned at the lack of his left appendage. He felt as if he was incomplete without it. Sighing, he rubbed his already messed up pink hair and messed it up even more, chuckling at himself at how ridiculous he looked.

Scratching his cheek, Natsu turned on his heel before walking towards the door where Juvia and that little girl had gone. He walked towards it, grasped the knob, turned it and opened the door. He was instantly met with Juvia's concerned dark-blue eyes, making him sweatdrop at her obsessiveness.

"Juvia, I'm fine. My arm's gone but that doesn't mean I'm dead or whatever." He said with a sigh while walking past her, "Where are we anyway?" He asked while looking around. The place was rather spacious; it had a few windows adorning its walls, some furniture like two sofas and the like and an absurd amount of old tech scattered around.

"So you're awake, boy." Natsu heard an elderly voice to his side and turned his head to meet the old black eyes of a short, grey haired old man. Natsu quirked an eyebrow at the fact that he was this short and he was smoking from a pipe.

"Excuse me if I seem rude, but aren't you a bit too short to be smoking? I mean, shit, don't you get even shorter from that stuff?" He asked while staring awkwardly at the elderly man.

Juvia's facepalm actually reverberated through the room, "Natsu, you're being rude." She said sternly, the only response from the pinkette was an apathetic shrug.

The grey haired man chuckled as a response, "Indeed it does, my boy. Although I don't think I can get any shorter than I already am." He stated with a smile.

The pinkette shrugged yet again, not really caring about the matter anyway, "So I take it you're the one who got my sorry ass out of the hellhole I was previously in, huh? Who are you anyway?"

"Makarov."

"Natsu." The pinkette replied with a nod. He pointed behind him with his thumb, "That's Juvia." He said and the woman behind him bowed slightly.

"A pleasure." Makarov said while nodding himself before turning to the young blue haired girl who's brown eyes were staring at Natsu and Juvia curiously, "That little girl right there is Wendy, she's the one who saved you."

The pinkette glanced at the blue haired girl named Wendy curiously before he smiled, "Thanks for dragging my half-dead carcass across the wasteland, Wendy. If you hadn't found me I would probably be dead."

The little girl shook her head, clearly unfazed by the words Natsu used to describe his past situation, "No, if it weren't for Juvia-san we would both be dead." She admitted, making the ex-Ryuukishi look at the dark-blue-eyed woman curiously.

She chuckled, "Well, I went searching for you when I heard from command that you were KIA. When I got to your last known location there was a clean-up crew there." Juvia explained before something dawned in her, "Wait, New Fiore's clean-up crew was there… Natsu, what happened?"

The question made Natsu sigh before he plumped down on the couch near them and rubbed his face with his only arm, the two females and the older man standing next to the piece of furniture, all of them watching him patiently. Makarov coughed into his fist, "Yes, I would like to know what happened to someone that Wendy here thought was worth saving."

The pink haired man nodded in understanding before he sighed, "Well then, I guess I should start explaining who the hell I am, eh?" He said, receiving a nod from the older man, "My full name's Natsu Dragneel, a Ryuukishi in New Fiore's military, recently promoted to First Lieutenant." He informed, making the old man's eyes go wide while Wendy only stared at him in confusion. Natsu continued his story, explaining how Ghost squad was sent on a mission by New Fiore and explained who the members of Ghost squad were, "All of them were like brothers to me." He said, his voice shivering slightly from the memory of his comrades being slaughtered in front of his eyes. The pinkette growled angrily at the remembrance of the huge purple mech that had obliterated his team like it was nothing. He paused for a second before looking at everyone sternly, "I believe the fucks at Crocus betrayed us."

Juvia gasped at the statement, "B-but… that's…"

"Impossible?" Natsu chuckled humorlessly, "I know, I thought so as well. But something with the whole mission seemed off. There was just no way NF's Intel could fuck up this bad. I mean, nothing of the mission parameters we were given were true. Nothing. We found it weird from the very beginning and had our doubts, but we continued…until we saw it." He said, running a hand through his hair as if trying his best to recollect the memories his brain had hidden from him, "That thing that killed Sting, Rogue and Midnight… that thing that almost killed me. It was right there, inside the base that we were supposed to be taking. It was as if it was _waiting _for us."

"It?" Makarov asked, his curiosity rising by the second.

"It was this… I don't even know what it was. I had seen it before when I was a kid, but I had never really had a clear image of it in my memory… It was big, over six-stories big if you asked me, purple, menacing… I don't even know if you could consider that thing a mech." He said with a shaking voice, "Its movements, attacks, speed… everything. It was just… it was something I had never seen before in my life. That thing completely annihilated us."

A long pause for silence ensued after Natsu stopped retelling what happened on their mission. Everyone was trying to actually understand what had gotten him so shaken up. Makarov and Wendy were surprised to see a Lieutenant be so shaken up because, after all, only the best in New Fiore ever managed to reach that rank and above. And Juvia? The woman was simply and utterly astonished. She couldn't believe that the leader of Ghost squad, the man she had known for over six years, the man who had picked her up from the streets and gave her purpose was actually reduced to this pitiful shaking heap.

Juvia walked towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Natsu, I'm sorry… we should stop talking about this."

Makarov noticed the condition the pinkette was in and couldn't bring himself to ask about the purple mech anything further. He wanted to know, he really did. That mechanoid… he couldn't allow himself to not know if it was the same thing that he remembered, but he couldn't bring himself to destroy Natsu psychologically either. He sighed and inhaled some smoke from his pipe before nodding, "Yes, you just woke up, you need rest."

"No." An audible growl escaped the pinkette's throat before his head shot up and glared daggers at anything that got in his vision's way. Those eyes, they were burning with rage and the need for bloodshed, "I want that fucker to burn in my heart, my mind, my retinas… To leave a fucking imprint. I want to… no, I _need _to remember what he did, to both my parents and my friends, until my last breath. I will find that bastard, and when I do…" He paused, snarling at the image of the mech popping up in his mind, "I will prove that hell exists on this God forsaken rock before I erase any indication of that thing's existence."

Both Juvia's and Makarov's eyes widened at the revelation while Wendy simply took a few steps back, slightly disturbed by Natsu's words. Juvia put a hand to her mouth in complete and utter shock. Was this really the Natsu she knew? Was this really the same lazy pink haired Ryuukishi that had never failed to brighten up her mood? She couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth, nor could she even comprehend what he was actually saying. She knew Natsu too well and this… this wasn't him speaking.

The grey haired man stared at the pinkette and his comrade in awe. He couldn't believe the determination, the pure… rage dwelling inside him. Now he was certain. Now he knew for sure that what the ex-Ryuukishi described was what he feared.

The elderly man stood up while inhaling a large amount of smoke from his pipe. A trail of sweat ran down his cheek as he shakily lifted an arm up and placed it against his forehead, '_Dragneel… I knew that name was familiar. Akira… Your son… What happened to him… I'm so sorry…_' He thought with regret, his breathing becoming shaky as he slowly made his way towards the other side of the room before he supported himself against the railing next to a small flight of stairs that led outside.

Natsu stood up from the couch suddenly, his eyes brimming with resolve, "Do you have a vehicle I can borrow?" He asked no one in particular, although everyone understood what he meant.

"Well, yes, b-but… it needs to be repaired." Wendy said while watching the pinkette warily, "Why?"

"I'm heading out. I need to get this arm fixed so I can…" Natsu trailed off but was interrupted by Makarov.

"No!" The elderly man's shout reverberated through the room, causing everyone's eyes widen slightly at the sight of him panting as he glared at them, "You will stay here until you fully recover. Wendy here is a wiz at technology, she can think of something about your arm."

Both Natsu and Juvia stared at Makarov in puzzlement, trying to comprehend the reasoning behind the statement and failing, "Thank you for the kind offer, but…" Natsu started but was silenced when the older man raised an arm.

"No butts. You'll stay here until I see that you're fit enough for the outside world." Makarov stated while turning around, making his way outside of the room, "I can't allow such youth to die because of their own impatience and stupidity." He finished harshly, sparing one last glance at the three behind him before opening the door in front of him and leaving.

The pinkette continued to stare at where the grey haired man went for a while before sighing in defeat, "Okay, seems like I'm a prisoner now." He complained before groaning, "I don't have any right to whine though, you guys did save me." He stated as he glanced at the blue haired girl whose brown eyes were locked on him. Natsu scratched the back of his head before looking back at Juvia, "So… you mind explaining what actually happened when I was… you know, almost dead."

Juvia sighed and sat down on the couch where the pinkette previously sat, prompting him to sit down as well by patting the furniture's surface with her palm. As he sat down and Wendy sat on the armrest to the couch's side, Juvia began telling Natsu how she had had a hunch that Natsu might still be alive. No, she told him how she didn't believe he had died. The tracer placed in his mech, her own mech speeding out of Crocus to his last known location, the sighting and complete annihilation of the clean-up crew she encountered, the meeting of Wendy and them taking him to this place; she didn't leave out a single detail.

The ex-Ryuukishi sweatdropped, "You had a tracer planted in my mech?"

"I… may have?" The woman chuckled nervously while scratching her cheek with one of her fingers, "I mean… I have to know if the mech I sweat blood to make and repair is safe and sound, don't I?" She asked, finding a decent cover-up to mask her true intentions.

Natsu simply shrugged, not really caring if her answer was sincere or not, "Speaking of which… how is the Sanshōo?" He asked and noticed her expression morphing into a frown, his own changed into a saddened one as his eyes fell to the floor, "That bad?"

"It…" Juvia paused, trying to find the right words, "It's bad, Natsu. When we found you, the Sanshōo was nothing more than a burning scrap heap. We were lucky it didn't explode before we you out of there."

"And I'm grateful for that but… The Sanshōo, it was the only thing that I know of capable of holding out at least three seconds against that _thing_." He said regretfully.

"Natsu-san… was it?" The younger blue haired female spoke up, catching the attention of the other two, "The reason why I was out in the wastes in the first place was to scavenge for parts and whatnot…" She paused, "After getting you out of your mech, Juvia-san and I managed to scavenge a decent amount of parts and scrap metal that we may still be able to use."

"That's right. We have a decent amount of parts and metals salvaged; although, if we combine that with the mech that I came in with… it's still not enough." Juvia added.

"Wait, your mech? You mean…?" The pinkette asked in surprise while looking in the woman's direction.

A small smile made itself known on her lips, "Yes, Natsu. You need it more than I do, don't you? We'll strip it and use its parts to build you a new mech." She said, sighing tiredly at the pinkette's shining eyes before waving a hand, "But it's still not enough. For what I have heard, you'll need a beast of a machine to top the purple mech you fought. We need a mech even better than the Sanshōo, which will not be easy to achieve seeing as we're cut off from military resources." She paused, "Luckily, I brought both what you and I made in the military, so we're more or less loaded." She concluded, waving a hand again to stop the pinkette from asking how she got access to his bank account, "The problem now is: where do we get what we need?"

Wendy hummed as Juvia stopped talking, "A good hour's drive away there is a sort of market, but it's raider controlled." The younger girl explained while rubbing her chin, "They have almost everything there. I could have sworn I saw Etherionite weaponry there once as well."

"Then it's settled." Natsu said as he stood up, "That's where we're going."

"Hold your horses." The older engineer halted, making the pinkette look at her curiously, "Makarov-san told you to stay here so that's where you're going to be." She instructed, making the pinkette frown, "Besides, didn't Wendy say the only vehicle they had was broken? I could fly us in with the mech I brought, but I doubt they wouldn't open fire on us seeing as the place is raider controlled."

The ex-Ryuukishi groaned in defeat before falling back down on the couch, "Then what the hell do we do?"

"I think we should see into your arm problem." Juvia said with a glance towards the younger engineer who nodded as a response.

"I'd be done with the artificial limb in about three to four hours. Can I use the parts we managed to save from your mech?" Wendy asked enthusiastically, hoping that she would be allowed to tinker with some A-grade materials.

"The Sanshōo." Natsu reminded the little girl of his last mech's name and she nodded as a response, "And yeah, go ahead. Sharing our recourses with you people is the least I can do for saving my life and providing us with a temporary roof over our heads." The pinkette finished with a smile, making Wendy smile as well as she nodded and proceeded out of the room in the same direction Makarov had gone.

"Hey, don't you need to measure my body or something? You know, for the arm...?" The pink haired man asked.

Wendy stopped for a second and looked at Natsu as if he had grown a second head, "No, why? I already got your arm's measurements in my head just by looking at you."

"O-okay…" Natsu said dumbly, "I won't argue with you then." He added before Wendy left the room.

The two people left in the room glanced at each other, not really knowing what they were supposed to do in the meantime. Natsu suddenly remembered something, something that happened between him and Juvia this morning. He really didn't want to ask because he knew that if you ask a woman something like that nothing good will come out of it… but, of course, his curiosity got the better of him, "Juvia, can I ask you a question?" He asked and she hummed in affirmation, "What happened to you when I woke up? I mean… when you hugged me and… well, you get the point." He said and had to resist the urge to facepalm. Since when had he become a stuttering mess when things like these were concerned?

Juvia quirked an eyebrow, not really understanding what he was referring to. Then it hit her; her eyes widened and a blush covered her features. She let her head fall down slightly, ashamed of losing control of herself like that, "I… it… that…" She stuttered, which the pinkette actually found amusing, though he knew that he'll probably have a headache afterwards, "It's none of your business!" The woman suddenly said as she stood up and marched towards the room's exit, "I'm going to see if I can help Wendy." She said and left, slamming the door shut behind her.

Natsu sweatdropped before massaging his right temple, '_Women._' He thought before letting his legs lie on the couch and he got comfortable by using his right hand as a pillow for his head.

He glanced out the only window adorning the room, thinking back to the events that unfolded not so long ago. He thought about his teammates yet again, punishing himself for everything that happened, thinking that he didn't deserve anyone's help or forgiveness for what happened because of him. Then something he had least expected happened. He thought about her; her dark-purple hair, her brown eyes, her sweet voice… hell, even the music they both listened to. He didn't know why, but the thought of her just seemed to calm him down. He honestly didn't know if he felt anything for her. How could he? Sure, they've known each other for a rather long time, but never had they really conversed on a personal level… besides that one night. That one night that Natsu still regrets forgetting.

He smiled slightly and closed his eyes, sighing deeply as he got comfortable on the couch. Thoughts about the woman continued to roam in his mind. He wondered if he'd ever see her again with things as they were now. And, even if they did, what would he say to her? '_Hi! Sorry that I kinda died, some shit happened that made me lose an arm and caused me to develop some homicidal tendencies! Anyway, how have you been?_' He thought to himself, chuckling humorlessly. That would probably be a good start because, after all, he really never was any good with words.

He didn't know why the hell was he thinking of her, all he did know, however, was that these thoughts seemed to calm him down to a degree that he could actually fall asleep. And, with that being said and with the purple-haired woman still in his mind's eye, Natsu slowly but surely wandered into sandman's land and the nightmares that followed.

* * *

_Exact location unknown, Makarov's house, the Wasteland, a few hours after Natsu's awakening_

The room's door opened to reveal a messy haired Natsu leaving, yawning from being suddenly awaken by Juvia who had almost instantly stormed back to where she came from after waking him up. Grumbling and wobbling carefully down the stairs that led to the cellar, Natsu hissed as he felt his legs' joints act up. He wasn't a fool; even he realized that he needed to recuperate after everything that happened, the only problem was – he didn't want to allow himself any rest. His friends died and the fucker that killed them was on the loose. That wasn't acceptable.

Finally reaching the bottom floor, he supported himself on the railing with his one arm and stared at the room in front of him, "W-what… what the hell?" He asked in shock, noticing the abundance of technology, spare parts, working robots and the like littering the room that was the size of four of the previous rooms.

"Ah, Natsu-san." Wendy called, removing her eye-protecting goggles that covered most of her face. Her brown eyes locked on him before she motioned for him to sit on one of the metallic tables that were set out on the room. She walked towards the table and cleared it of any unneeded parts before the pinkette sat down and glanced at her curiously.

"So… what now?" He asked.

Wendy nodded, "Okay, first off, remove your shirt and the bandages covering the left side of your body." The blue haired girl ordered and he removed his shirt, hissing slightly when he accidentally touched the place where his shoulder used to be. The pinkette was about to ask for help removing the bandages when a hand ruffled his hair, making him look up and see Juvia.

"I'll help you." She said with a smile, making him nod. Slowly, she undid the bandages covering his body to reveal the hole that was his shoulder with burn marks along his back and his left breast. Juvia frowned at the injuries while Natsu only chuckled without a shred of humor in his voice.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing that I can't deal with." He told her, making the woman nod, albeit uncertainly.

The rattling of wheels caught both of their attention and they turned to the middle of the room, witnessing Wendy walking their way while dragging some sort of apparatus which held a tube the length of Natsu's arm that had a sort of small window etched in its middle, revealing a silver-ish form of an arm floating in some sort of liquid.

The younger engineer wiped away some sweat from her forehead before huffing and looking at Natsu, "This is your new arm." She stated, making Natsu nod, "It's made from the titanium I managed to scrounge up. It won't impair your movements too much and will still provide you with a boost in strength and defense."

"So… how will this work?" The ex-Ryuukishi asked while watching the apparatus curiously.

"This tube will attach the arm to your body and will be a perfect replacement for your lost limb. You shouldn't feel any delay in its movements due to the Etherion enhanced strings that will attach themselves to your body and with a computerized system it will decipher the neuron movements in your body and will react to them accordingly." Juvia explained, making Natsu grasp his head.

"So much tech stuff… Let's just get this over with before I get a headache." The pinkette said, making both females present chuckle.

Juvia went to another table and picked up a syringe, "Juvia, wait." She was made to look at Natsu when he called, "No morphine or shit like that. I'll take the full package." He said, making her eyes go wide at the sight of his stern gaze.

"But… this will hurt. _Really _hurt." The woman said.

The pinkette shook his head, "I don't care. I need to feel it."

Juvia stared at him dumbly for a few moments before sighing and putting the syringe back down on the table, "Fine, have it your way." She said and Natsu nodded his thanks.

"Well, whenever you're ready, Natsu-san." Wendy said. Natsu glanced at her before he sat straight and motioned for her to begin with his hand. She pulled the contraption forward and fiddled with the computer next to it, making the machine's robotic arm push the tube against Natsu's left side. The pinkette hissed at the contact of cold steel and burnt flesh before righting himself and nodding to continue.

What happened next had taken Natsu completely by surprise. He knew that it would hurt, but he had no idea just how much. A sharp beep was heard from the tube before a spike ejected from in and went directly into his body. Natsu groaned loudly, his eyes becoming teary from the sudden contact. The pain he felt… it was excruciating, but he refused to scream. He had no right to, after all.

Now, as if his suffering wasn't enough, the procedure continued. The metallic appendage was slowly taken out of the tube and was aligned with his body. Natsu had started sweating bullets and panting heavily from the things he felt. He thought it would be over soon; it wouldn't.

Extremely small metallic wires shot inside his body from the appendage, making their presence known as they attached themselves to his body and held the new arm in place. The wires writhed in his insides, attaching themselves to Natsu's nervous system and sending multiple jolts of electricity blasts through his whole body.

The pinkette's head shot upwards. His eyes wide, he was gritting his teeth, finding the urge to scream growing. He could feel Juvia's arms embracing him from behind, holding him in place to make the operation go faster.

He couldn't even describe what he was feeling. It was a mixture between coldness, warmth, electricity shock and excruciating pain; and, at that moment, only one question was lurking in his mind.

Was this even remotely close to what Ghost Squad felt in the last moments of their lives?

* * *

_A good twenty minutes later_

The pink haired man lay on the ground, writhing in pain as his body tried to adjust to the new metallic appendage that was just attached to it. Juvia and Wendy had instantly ran to help him up when he fell down after the procedure, but he halted them, saying he needed to adjust by himself.

He shook on the ground, his new appendage motionless. Gritting his teeth, he used his right arm as a support and leaned up. He stretched his back as he was on his knees and his head tilted upwards, his panting intensifying. After a minute or two, he lowered his head to glance at his arm as he raised his right. After another moment, he grit his teeth and resisted the urge to puke as the pain from his left side intensified when he tried moving his new appendage. Surprisingly, it moved. It was slow, but it was sure. Natsu's eyes widened as he watched the new appendage move shakily until it was mimicking his right arm's position, holding his palms in front of him.

Natsu eyed both hands carefully, noting the minimal difference in their size; Wendy had really gone and done an amazing job. He moved his right hand's fingers and tried moving his left's too. His eyes widened when both of the hands' fingers moved at an identical pace, matching each other perfectly. He balled the palms of his hands into fists before smiling slightly. He let his body fall towards the ground and supported himself with both hands.

The pinkette raised his new appendage into the air before smashing it into the ground, causing it to crack slightly. Natsu flinched from the jolt of pain that was sent through his body, but he couldn't help but continue to smile. Raising his fist again and smashing it on the ground multiple times, the pinkette grinned as it made a hole in the ground and caused a rather large amount of cracks to cover it. His grin widened when he noticed that not a single scratch was visible on his new appendage's knuckles.

Perfect.

"Hey, don't break the floor." Juvia said with a sweatdrop, making the pinkette chuckle sheepishly as he slowly got back on his feet, all the while inspecting his new arm.

"How are you feeling, Natsu-san?" Wendy asked while staring at the man with both curiosity and concern in her eyes.

Natsu rotated his shoulders slowly, trying to get a feel for his now mechanized appendage. His eyebrow twitching every once in a while, he rose up the new appendage and smiled, "Besides the shocks of electricity I feel every now and again, it feels… natural. The movements are great, I don't feel any delay."

Wendy nodded in response, a smile forming on her young features, "I'm glad." She said sincerely, "And the shocks… well, they should fade in a couple of days." She added and the pinkette nodded.

"Good. Now… the only thing that's left is the mech."

"No, Natsu." Juvia said with a shake of her head, "You need to rest first."

"I'll get plenty of rest. The building of the machine will take time, especially with only the two of you, right?" He asked, hissing quietly when he felt a rather painful jolt of electricity course through his body.

The older woman rubbed her forehead in thought before sighing and nodding tiredly, "Yes, I guess that's true." She said before turning around and walking to a table on the other side of the room, "While Wendy was working on the arm, I drew a blueprint of your new machine. Come take a look." She explained with a wave of her hand.

Natsu looked at the blueprint from behind her and couldn't help but smile. She had made it simple so he could understand. She could have made it the difficult design that engineers were famed for and he wouldn't be able to understand a single thing on it, but, obviously, she knew that he would want to take a look. Juvia moved aside and the pinkette focused on the blueprint in front of him. The mech looked similar to the Sanshōo, but slightly different as well. Titanium plating, a microweave design, titanium fiber covering the mechanisms under the armored plates, Etherion enhanced joints, a completely now propulsion system… all in all Natsu was really surprised and happy with the mech's design.

Yet, even with this, he wasn't really satisfied. He grabbed a nearby pencil and started to draw something on the blueprint, erasing something around the mech's arm as he did so. This made Juvia quirk an eyebrow, "…Natsu? What are you doing?"

"Editing." He said before he finished drawing and showed the blueprint to the woman, "I know this is better than the Sanshōo, but it is still partially the same. I need a completely new design, meaning new combat capabilities." He said, showing the additions he made to the arms and back.

Juvia looked through what he added while scratching her chin. Hey eyes slightly widened at the realization, "Dual-wielding?" She asked, making the pinkette nod.

"Aye. Striping the defenses from the arms will allow faster and more accurate swings. Removing some of the plating from the mech will reduce its weight and increase movement speed. Changing the thrusters all together will allow it to reach faster speeds than ever before." He explained.

The woman seemed unsure, "But… wouldn't that put you in danger? And I have never seen a mech with two swords before. What about ranged weapons?"

Natsu shook his head, "Defense is irrelevant. When I fought that purple mech, no matter of defense had helped us. I managed to attack it but I lacked the speed and strength to even make a dent. We need to change that and I'm willing to sacrifice my defensive capabilities for speed. Dodging is a defense, and I'm going to abuse it." He said, watching her with serious eyes, "And the dual-wielding part… I've always been better with two swords than one."

She kept looking at the blueprint, trying to figure out what could make it even better before she sighed, "Fine, we'll remove the more beefy aspects of the mech, but we'll have to make up for it with heavier thrusters so you can output more power and travel faster. If you're going to be dodging you'll need the speed. That will make up for ranged weapons as well since you'll be able to close the distance between you and your enemy faster." She said, making Natsu grin.

"Aye." He replied, satisfied with the change. He glanced at the younger girl, "Wendy, where do you keep the vehicle you talked about previously?"

Wendy quirked an eyebrow, "We have a sort of garage outside. Why?" She asked, slightly surprised and confused by the question.

Natsu chuckled, "If there's anything I can repair, it's a damned car." He said while walking towards the flight of stairs he came down before. He flinched slightly as he walked up the stairs, feeling his joints aching yet again as a bolt of electricity coursed through his body. He cursed under his breath, figuring that this annoyance wouldn't subside any time soon.

"Hey, Natsu!" Juvia called but it fell on deaf ears as the pinkette was already gone. She rubbed her forehead again, annoyed by the ex-Ryuukishi's antics slightly, "Wendy, could you check and see if he'll be alright? Who knows what that idiot might do to himself." She asked and the younger girl nodded before following the pinkette.

Juvia checked to see if Wendy had left before she quickly went to a computer she saw and sat down on a chair next to it. She turned it on carefully before fiddling with its keyboard. The woman opened a communications panel before checking some programs, making sure no one could trace the call. After a few minutes a yawning blue haired girl appeared on Juvia's screen, her hazel eyes tiredly staring at Juvia's face before the sleepy girl realized who had called, causing her eyes to widen.

"Juvia?" The woman asked in shock.

"Hey Levy. How are you?" Juvia replied with a smile.

The blue haired woman, now known as Levy, watched Juvia in shock before shaking her head. She grasped her own monitor and Juvia could tell she was shaking it. The engineer shook her head, her smile still intact; leave it up to Levy to come up with the most dramatic ways to say hi, "Where are you?! Do you realize that Crocus is considering you AWOL and the military is on the look-out for you?!" Levy asked seriously, concern etched in her voice. Juvia couldn't help but chuckle at her friend's reaction.

"Yeah, I figured they would." She said, ceasing her laughing before looking at Levy's hazel eyes, "Look, Levy… I found Natsu." She said, making the girl's eyes widen even more... if that was even possible by this point.

"Wait. Natsu is… alive? But… they reported him dead, didn't they…?" She asked with a stutter.

The engineer shook her head, her dark-blue eyes gazing at the monitor in anger, "No. That was made up. The military was the one who had ordered that Natsu be killed in the first place." Juvia explained. She noticed that Levy was taken aback and was about to ask something, "Look. I can't explain everything now. And besides, that's not why I called." She quickly said, interrupting her friend.

"Then… what did you want?" The girl on the other side of the line asked warily... although the shred of curiosity in her voice was as obvious as day.

Juvia sighed before gazing at Levy's brown eyes seriously, "Do you still have the Etherionized blades you told me about?" She asked and the other girl nodded her head as a response. Juvia smirked, "Good. I need a favor."


	6. Life Goes On

_**A/N: **It's been a long time, but I've updated. Finally, eh? I've been getting a buttload of messages/death threats and whatnot to finally update and... well, I'm honestly glad I'm getting death threats. Sounds weird, right? I guess I'm just glad people want me to update this shit, y'know?_

_Also, the character that will be mentioned below... He was in FT at some point. I know he isn't from the story, but he was in the story, hence why I don't want to hear any shit about it. And no, this will not be a crossover because of him, fuck that._

* * *

_**A Ghost's Conviction**_

* * *

_**Chapter six: Life Goes On**_

* * *

The nauseating smell of smoke filled the air, accompanied by black wispy plumes that reached into the sky from the burning base. Destroyed mech parts littered the area, some of them with black still fuming holes etched in their being from constantly being battered by the enemies' weapons; some had blood stains decorating them, a testament to the fallen soldiers that once occupied these vessels. The wind blew mercilessly, covering each and every single thing lying on the ground with grey sand that would eventually erase any trace of the battle that had taken place here. It was a solemn sight, the remnants of lost lives being the only thing that remained of the area, and even that would soon fade away into nothingness, only being remembered by one single lost soul.

Natsu walked through the area slowly, examining everything in the general vicinity. He kept looking around in an attempt to comprehend where he was in the known world. The area seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't really tell since every area in the Wasteland seemed the same; grey sand and dead bodies; if the sand hadn't consumed the corpses, anyway. But the pinkette couldn't shake the feeling that he had been here before, that he was one of the main players in this battle that no doubt took the lives of many a soldier. His fears were confirmed when he saw one single machine sprawled out on the hot sands of the wastes, its body _mutilated_ to the point where he could barely even realize what the machine was.

The Sanshōo 2.

He stared at what was left of the machine with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness. His eyes drifted slowly up the machine's form, meeting it's now dark, dead eyes. The now decommissioned robot stared back at Natsu and the man could've sword that the machine had an expression of its own; it was as if the Sanshōo was giving him a look of pure, unadulterated disappointment… and Natsu really couldn't blame it if it was true.

He failed it. But, more importantly, he failed them, his team, his friends, his brothers. All of them; Sting, Rogue and Midnight; he spent the best years of his life together with those three and he still couldn't shake the feeling that they were all continuously observing him from the other side. The pink haired man smiled deeply, imagining the smiling faces of his brothers in arms, their eyes staring at him, urging him to keep moving forward despite adversity.

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when the ground shook around him. The Sanshōo's metallic arm swiftly moved forward and grabbed Natsu's form, the speed of the movement causing a gust of wind to raise the grey sand and dust around him, making him cough roughly at the grip and the dust assaulting his throat. Natsu groaned loudly as his machine tightened its grasp on his form; he could feel his insides being crushed, his bones breaking, his ribs piercing his lungs, his heart giving in.

Another quake suddenly arose again before a flash followed suit. The machine had disappeared from his vision and the young ex-Ryuukishi fell to his knees, trying to hold his side with his left arm. He felt excruciating pain coming from his shoulder. Turning his head to inspect what was wrong, all he saw was red; his left shoulder literally exploded right in front of his eyes, an immeasurable amount of blood splattered around him, painting the dull grey sand a sorrowful crimson. His dark eyes widened at the sight before the pain coursing through his body escalated, causing him to lose his cool and scream his lungs out due to the pain. The pinkette slammed his forehead against the painted sand, gritting his teeth at his ever worsening state.

The ground around him gave in, creating a crater beneath him. The dark sands started whirling around, forming a tornado around the pinkette as the wind picked up. A multitude of elongated, dark and shadowy arms sprouted from the surrounding area, every single surreal appendage dowsed in black flames. They grasped his form and entangled him in their web. The flames surrounding the arms started covering Natsu's body, causing his screams of agony to intensify as the mystical arms pulled him into the ground. The pink haired man managed to free his arm and tried his best to reach for the sky, hoping, praying that someone would save him from this nightmare, but he realized that those hopes were in vain when his whole body was pulled under, causing Natsu to see nothing but black.

The next thing he knew when he opened his eyes was that he was falling. He was descending at such speeds that he couldn't even move a single appendage. Turning to the side, he saw multiple bodies falling as well, all of them screaming in agony as the same black flames that covered him were eating away at their flesh as if opening the gates to their journey to hell. The pinkette focused on one of the victims that quickly passed by him, the recognition of who the person was made the ex-Ryuukishi's eyes widen in shock. He had seen him before. He had been the one who Natsu killed in his surprise attack on the outpost five clicks west of the main base. A mixture of emotions flooded through Natsu, most of which he couldn't even name, but he knew that guilt was one of them; guilt and regret.

His descent was brought to a sudden end when Natsu smashed against something extremely hard, causing him to gasp from the force, the air being literally kicked out of him. The pinkette kept gritting his teeth as the flames continued to creep around his body, not burning away any flesh but sending the needed impulses to his brain to mimic the feeling of being burnt alive. He screamed; the pain was maddening.

The ex-Ryuukishi ignored the pain as best he could and rolled to the side so he was lying on his stomach. He placed his single arm on the ground and pushed himself up slowly until he was on one knee. He looked around the immediate area when he heard the screams of the people falling down intensifying even more. He saw the people dressed in military suits fall into some sort of black ooze surrounding the rock he was kneeling on, black flames sprouting from their bodies once they fell in.

Black lava.

He groaned in pain, trying his best to ignore the agonizing screams surrounding him. As he stood up, Natsu instantly felt dizzy and light-headed. He glanced towards his left shoulder and instantly realized why he was feeling like that; anemia. Blood was freely flowing out of where his appendage once was, covering the whole left side of his body in a deep scarlet shade.

He stumbled forward when he saw a walkway rise out of the lava in front of him and he began to make his way across it. He tried to ignore the pain filled screams that surrounded him but he couldn't; the agony in the voices _commanded_ his attention.

"Murderer." A voice beside him said and he glanced down to his right towards the lava, almost instantly regretting it afterwards. He stumbled back when saw Midnight, or what was left of him, pointing at him in accusation. Half of the man's face was burned off, revealing his skull, with the only part still intact being his hate filled eyes. Natsu placed a hand over his heart when he felt it beating hard against his chest, seemingly in an attempt to burst out of him when Midnight began trying to claw his way through the lava, muttering the same word over and over again.

_Murderer._

"Coward." Rogue's crushed body said as it lifelessly floated through the lava, seemingly refusing to burn. His mangled form only being able to stare at Natsu with hate filled eyes, but seemingly through his as well, as if he could see the pinkette's very existence. Natsu's soul.

_Murderer._

_Coward._

"Why didn't you save us?" Sting asked, seemingly unharmed as he stood in front of Natsu on the walkway. Unlike the other two, his eyes were filled with sadness and regret instead of hate.

"Why did you let us die? Why didn't you try to save us? Why did you send us here?" The blond asked in misery, causing Natsu to grit his teeth as he fought back tears.

"I… I did! I tried! I really did tr-" He was cut off when Sting suddenly exploded, splatting blood and other organs on him. The pinkette stumbled back as the urge to vomit threatened to overtake him. He fell back, sitting on the ground as the walkway in front of him cracked, revealing the same monstrosity that killed his squad. Its red eyes peered down at him aimlessly before it raised its arm, revealing a gun aimed beside Natsu.

"Lieutenant! Help!" Midnight yelled from beside the pinkette, seemingly appearing in perfect health as Natsu scrambled to get to him, only to see the black and white haired man being ripped to pieces in a hail of gunfire.

"Lieutenant!" Natsu quickly looked behind him, seeing Rogue run towards him before the mech slammed its hand down, crushing the black haired man and causing small drops of lava to splatter on the pinkette. He struggled to catch his breath as tears ran down his face and he felt disgusted with himself.

"How could you let this happen? I know I taught you better… Why, did you let this happen, Natsu?" Lyon asked as he walked towards the pinkette, a look of pity in his eyes, with Gray behind him.

"I… I don't… I didn't… I-I tried…" Natsu struggled to talk in between breaths as Lyon simply shook his head.

"I never would have expected this from you, Natsu. If I knew this was all you were worth, I never would have wasted my time. You betrayed your own squad, people that _trusted _you, Natsu. Their lives never meant anything to you, did they? You're nothing more than a treacherous murdering coward, Natsu Dragneel. To think that this was all you would ever amount to… I would say I'm disappointed, but somewhere deep down, I knew this was all you would ever be…" Lyon trailed off as he turned away in disgust as Gray walked forward to Natsu.

The brunette simply stared at him, disappointment and resentment obvious in his eyes. He raised a gun and pushed it against Natsu's forehead. Natsu let out a light gasp when he felt the cold metal touch his forehead, sending light shivers throughout his body. His eyes almost crossed as he struggled to see the firearm; only being able to see the slightly curved leather handle, the gun chamber that protruded from both sides of the gun, and only a portion of the long barrel that was currently aimed at his forehead.

The brunette's eyes glared at the pink haired man as he continued to breathe heavily, blood flowed out of his shoulder and black flames were seemingly engulfing his whole being, excruciating pain coursing through the entirety of his body. In the blink of an eye, Gray pulled the trigger, causing a loud bang to reverberate through the underworld that he was in, muffling out the screams surrounding them.

He heard nothing, felt nothing, knew nothing; he felt as if that was only fit for someone like him. He was _nothing_ but a coward and a murderer. Natsu lost all the life of his body, his eyes slowly darkening as his body slowly fell backwards and was engulfed by the pitch-black lava surrounding him. The last thing he could see was his own soul plummeting down the black burning abyss.

'_Don't die._'

Natsu gasped as he leaned up, grasping his face with his right arm, breathing heavily as sweat covered the entirety of his body.

'_What the fuck was that…?_' He thought to himself desperately as he tried to calm himself just after waking up from that horrendous nightmare. He had had nightmares concerning his former team before, but none of them were as dreadful as this one. Seeing his team die in his dream again, it affected him greatly; it was bad enough seeing it the first time it happened, but the way they all blamed him for his death… was something he couldn't handle even if he wanted to.

Natsu shook his head frantically, desperately trying to rid his mind of the thoughts that were assaulting him. He raised his head and glanced at the blue sky; he almost instantly had to cover his face due to the relentless rays of sunlight shining from above. As his eyes recovered, Natsu stared at his metallic appendage that shielded his eyes from the sunlight, a mixture of regret and sorrow in his eyes. He lowered his eyes and stared at the endless wasteland in front of him, his eyes widening at the image of Sting running towards him, his arm raised, his face morphed into one of desperation and fear.

Natsu shook his head and rubbed his face before glancing back at where he saw Sting, the blond's image had already faded, '_Fucking mirages…_' He thought as he hopped off the vehicle atop which he was slumbering. He watched the military four-wheeler which he had been repairing for a few hours already today and he was glad he was done with the repairs before he figured he should take a nap; in his current state there was no way he could repair anything. The vehicle looked like a typical jeep, although it was larger than anything resembling the aforementioned vehicle. It had been painted the yellow-orange military camouflage, had four extremely large wheels and was armored on all sides with four entrances to the vehicle itself, allowing the transportation of over eight people, two in the front, two in the middle and four in the back. There was a protrusion on the roof of the armored car, a place to store a machine gun emplacement. Natsu would've attached it but, as he noticed, there wasn't anything akin to a machinegun in the hangar he was in.

He looked around the large steel hangar he was in. The place had been considerably well kept seeing as how it must have been over ten years old without any military presence here. As Wendy explained, this used to be a military outpost but it was decimated in one of the rebellion's assaults, the rebels taking anything they can from the hangar and leaving it for dead. Now, however, it was the holding area for Wendy's and Makarov's scavenged technology and an addition to their home, therefore the two had been taking good care of it. Natsu glanced at the back of the hangar where the ceiling of the structure had collapsed, causing grey sand to cover most of the back area. They didn't have any machinery to clear it out, Natsu guessed, but otherwise this hangar was in top shape. The area he was in was cleaner than his room had ever been and housed a large variety of technology which would otherwise be useless if it weren't for the blue haired girl.

The pink haired man stretched his back out, sighing in satisfaction when he heard the bones pop in a few areas. He yawned lightly before going towards the driving seat of the vehicle he had just been repairing, figuring that he could finally try seeing if it'd run after two days of repairs. He entered the vehicle and sat down, humming in content at the soft surface, '_Fuckin' leather seats man._' He thought with a chuckle as he pushed they keys into their hold and turned. The engine revved up and after a few seconds finally ignited, causing a grin to appear on the ex-Ryuukishi's features, '_And we're good to go._'

He turned off the engine and was about to tell Juvia and the others that they were ready to go when the blue haired woman peeked around the corner, "You're done already? We could hear the engine from downstairs."

"Thank you, I tried." Natsu replied with a grin, "Well, we ready to go yet?" He asked as he stood up on the edge of the vehicle and watched the woman curiously. They had decided to go to a nearby settlement, Shirotsume, to get supplies as soon as Natsu fixed the car.

"I'll go check if Wendy's ready." Juvia declared and the pinkette nodded in affirmation. Juvia left and returned in around two minutes, followed by a younger blue haired girl. Both the females got into the car and closed the doors behind them, Juvia sat next to Natsu at the front while Wendy sat one row behind them in the car's middle.

"Hey, Wendy, I hope you don't mind, but I uh… _borrowed_ your turbine power core." Natsu said with a smirk, causing the younger girl to quirk an eyebrow.

"I-I don't… but, if I may ask, why did you need it?" She inquired, making the smirk on the pinkette's face morph into a wide grin.

"What do you think kept me in here for two days?" He said as he revved up the engine and hit the gas, causing the vehicle to instantly move from the hangar forwards, erecting a cloud of sand and dust from staying in one place for so long, "You two might want to hold on, this will get bumpy!" The pink haired man shouted, the grin still present on his features. As the vehicle rapidly increased its speed and reached around sixty miles per hour, Natsu pulled on a lever next to the wheel. Next thing any of them knew, the car's speed skyrocketed to almost a hundred and thirty miles per hour, causing the girls to shriek at the sudden increase of speed and the air time the car accumulated every time it ran off of a sand dune.

"Natsu! Slow down!" Juvia shouted out but even her screams were almost muffled out by the sheer intensity of the vehicle's engine running.

"Hell no, we'll reach Shirotsume faster this way!" The ex-Ryuukishi shouted back, causing Wendy to sweatdrop behind them.

"If we don't die or kill someone on the way that is."

* * *

_Meanwhile in Crocus, Ryuukishi hangar._

Gray leaned on one of the walls making up the training area in the Ryuukishi Special Operations hangar, standing idly by and watching as his new squad fought amongst one another in a training regime. After spending a couple of days with his new teammates, the brunette realized why his older brother valued his comrades so much; every single one of the three individuals was special in one way or another and Gray realized that all of them were an irreplaceable part in Crocus's Military.

The first one was Yuka Suzuki, a slim, average height man with long blue hair tied in a ponytail and rather noticeable bushy eyebrows, was an individual adept at long to medium range combat. He specialized mostly in using an IM-87 rifle with his mech, a weapon which could switch between two firing modes – an 80mm one shot or 40mm three shot burst. The one shot mode of his weapon was mainly used for sniper fire while the three round burst was used for medium range encounters. The young 24 year old pilot had finished the military academy with exceptionally great scores and went on to climbing the rank tree, reaching the status of Senior Master Sergeant in no more than a year.

The second member of the squad was interesting in his own way. His overall appearance somehow had an uncanny resemblance to that of a hound, yet that of a normal man as well. It was honestly inexplicable. He was a lean man of average height, his brown hair slicked backwards. His name was Toby Horhorta, a 23 year old Master Sergeant who was unmatched among his peers in close quarters combat. Toby's machine used retractable claws that could cut through metal like butter and, combined with his immense speed, created an almost unstoppable killing machine.

The last one of the group, no doubt the most experience harboring Ryuukishi among the team, was Jura Neekis, a 28 year old First Lieutenant. Jura was a large, bulky man with a bald head. His smarts and strategic capabilities are said to rival even those of the higher ups, yet he never attempted gaining a higher military rank than he had already attained, stating that he prefers staying on the field rather than sitting behind a desk plotting their next attack. His mech wasn't the speedy type, but it sure as hell made up for it with its bulkiness. The machine itself was around thirty meters high, weighing at almost ninety tons; it was made to be able to take abuse without thinking twice. Its attacks were slow, therefore it utilized medium range weaponry instead of close quarters weapons, although if _anything_ were to receive a direct hit from one of its swipes you could be sure there would be nothing left of Jura's enemy.

Gray watched as Yuka and Toby teamed up in an attempt to take down the almost two times larger Jura. Toby carefully circled around the larger man while Yuka kept his distance, ready to pounce on Jura as soon as the brown haired man began his assault. The bald man kept his keen eyes on him, trying to predict his next move which was almost instantaneous.

Toby rushed at Jura, ducking when the large man swiped his fist forward before the brown haired man slammed his fist upwards and hit the larger man's jaw in an uppercut, but that seemed to do little to no damage to him. Jura grabbed Toby's offending appendage and was about to swing the smaller man to the side when Yuka jumped out of nowhere and kicked at the large man's elbow, temporarily disabling his arm, causing him to release the hold he had on the dog-like individual.

Toby fell to the ground face-first but was able to quickly right himself and commence for a counter-attack together with Yuka. The orange haired man dodged an incoming swipe from Jura's other arm by spinning in a 360 motion, all the while shifting his position so he ended up behind the larger man. Toby jumped at Jura from behind him and wrapped his arms around the older man's neck in an attempt to choke him into submission, but the muscles in his neck seemed less than likely to relent. All the while the blue haired man charged forward and slammed his fist against Jura's stomach, resulting in only the man gritting his teeth.

Gray smirked; Jura was like a God damned T-20 even when he was out of his mech.

Feeling as if he had enough of this child's play, the older man grabbed Toby's outstretched arms with both of his own appendages and swung the dog-like man over himself and onto Yuka, causing both of them to stagger and fall to the ground under the sheer strength Jura possessed.

The older man smiled slightly as he watched his two comrades struggle to stand up, "Had enough yet?" He asked with a calm voice, the confident smile on his features not faltering for even a fraction of a second.

"Damn it, what the hell do you eat?" The blue haired man asked as he wiped sweat away from his forehead, "I know that almost every training routine ends in the same way, but come on, this is ridiculous." Yuka complained while he helped Toby stand up.

"You two need more physical training. Being good in your machine doesn't always cut it."

"You got that right." Toby said as he stretched his back, smirking slightly when he felt a few bones pop back into place.

Jura's gaze shifted to their black-haired commander who was watching them in both amusement and curiosity, "Do you want to join us, Colonel?"

"Oh? That would make things unfair, don't you think?" Gray asked competitively with a small smirk on his lips. He knew that Jura was strong, but Gray was no weakling himself. There was no way in hell he could take on all three of them at the same time. Gray wasn't an idiot; he was able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates after their first day of training together. Outside their mechs, the brunette knew almost everything he had to about the three.

Jura matched Gray's competitiveness with a smirk of his own, "Maybe, maybe not. We won't know until we try, will we?"

Hearing these words, Gray nodded in response before walking towards the three men, rotating his neck and humming in satisfaction when he heard a few bones pop, "Don't cry to me when you lose, Jura!" The Colonel shouted as he rushed at the larger man, Yuka and Toby following close after.

And so the main fighting force of the Ryuukishi Special Forces, Hunter Squad, continued their training until a mission arose where they could show the fruits of their hard work for the military's eyes to see.

* * *

_The Wasteland, 1700 hours_

After a few hours of driving Natsu, Juvia and Wendy finally reached Shirotsume, a small civilian settlement in the middle of the wasteland. They had parked their car in a small canyon near the city – just in case there were any raiders in town who'd attempt stealing the vehicle when they were not around. They proceeded through the city, eyeing the many merchants trying to sell their goods.

The settlement wasn't small in size; one could even call it a small town. Wooden makeshift houses created small living districts, some of the houses harboring shops with various goods on display. Many an individual built their own stands on the street, creating what would otherwise be known as a shopping district going along Shirotsume's main 'street'. People were bustling around, some carrying their goods home, others trying to haggle the merchants into being more lenient with their prices, an occasional yell of a thief sounding in the settlement when someone found the prices to be too high and their need too great.

Natsu couldn't help but smile slightly; ever since he awoke from the disaster that was Ghost Squad's last mission he longed to see the sight of civilization, no matter how minor it was. Hell, he never did get used to living in the capital; until the disaster that ripped through his home and killed his parents the pinkette had lived in one of the many 'Areas' surrounding the capital, areas which flourished with agriculture and other manual labor tasks. He felt it strange, but he thought that Shirotsume seemed more a home to him than Crocus ever was.

"Maybe I'll build a house here." Natsu muttered under his breath with a barely audible chuckle as he watched children playing in one of the alleys. He knew that all of the people here were outcasts who were exiled out of Crocus at some point in their lives; the children might as well have been born here. The Wasteland itself was an unforgiving piece of the globe, but seeing sights like this town gave people some hope of a better life to come.

Juvia scanned the shops at almost lightning speed, her gaze primarily focused on the gear the merchants sold. Sometimes she'd pick a device up and inspect it to find out whether it was a piece of junk or something usable – something that was extremely rare in the Wasteland. Natsu couldn't help but chuckle at the woman's antics whenever she found something that was impossible to repair and she'd reprimand the merchants in front of their costumers about how what they were doing could be considered a rip-off.

After around half an hour of going through the city, the cart they took for their gear was already full, meaning they had gotten everything they needed or, simply put, everything they could possibly carry with them at a time. The ex-Ryuukishi was surprised about how short a time it took, but by the time he figured it was Juvia and Wendy – two geniuses regarding technology – who were doing the shopping, the time they spent buying became self-explanatory.

Eventually the trio felt rather tired and decided to crash at a local bar in search for refreshments and some food. Natsu was skeptical about the whole idea, but Wendy assured him that even settlements like these had edible food courtesy of the trade routes it had with the rebels in Magnolia. Natsu sighed inwardly at the mention of the rebellion, wondering how Gajeel was taking the news that he 'passed.' Knowing him, the bastard probably got drunk and went on a rampage trying to go and find him, but the pink haired man didn't hold his breath – it was better if Gajeel didn't attempt to search for him. Natsu wasn't ready to reappear into the world just yet.

The three of them entered the nearest bar they could find. It was an old building made out of wood and bricks, the inside of the bar having a western feel to it, resembling something you'd see in a cowboy movie where bars like this one were called saloons. The place was mostly empty so the three sat at the nearest table they could find near a window.

"I'm gonna go get a beer, you girls want anything?" Natsu asked as he stood up and gave the two bluenette's a small smile.

"Something edible, please. I'll leave it up to you." The older woman said and Wendy nodded in affirmation. Natsu nodded back and went towards the counter to order. He got a mug of beer and was told to wait for the omelets, the dish being the only thing Natsu could recognize in the menu. He grabbed his drink and went back to his seat when the barkeep told him someone would bring their food shortly.

Natsu sat down at their table and leaned back in his chair with a tiresome groan. He sipped out of his mug while he looked around the saloon, scanning his surroundings. That sort of 'reconnaissance' really had become a defensive instinct; the military academy wasn't joking when they said that what he'd learn there would stick for life. The place was mostly empty apart from the single person sitting at a table on the other end of the place across from them. He had medium length extremely spiky white hair and black eyes. He wore a light shirt underneath a black jacket with fur lining at the collar. He also wore a pair of white cargo pants with a chain dangling off of his right pocket and simple black boots. The pinkette took note of the handle of what seemed to be a knife sticking out from under the white haired man's jacket's inner pocket and the gun holster strapped to his right thigh.

The pinkette shrugged and drank out of his mug again before focusing on the conversation the two blue haired girls were having, nothing of which made any sense to him, "So we adjust the calibrations and make the necessary revisions and I think that I could make the new thrusters the equivalent to G4s." Juvia said with a triumphant nod, "Plus with the new gear we bought and with the things from my mech, we could quite possibly manage to create a new Doroma drive core."

Wendy nodded at the revelation, but something still kept bothering her. She rubbed her temples before an idea came to mind and she smiled confidently, "I have an idea for the targeting systems. The Precision core we bought… if we could calibrate it to Natsu-san's maximum accuracy and hone it to the new machine to maintain the 100% accuracy rating, we could most likely add an automatic locking system that would…"

Yeah, no, Natsu's knowledge about technology never went past four-wheeled vehicles.

Suddenly Natsu felt an indescribable feeling of self-preservation. He had no idea why, but for some reason his defensive instincts went into overdrive; yet another trait the military academy had literally pounded into him. A few moments later the doors to the saloon crashed open violently and three men entered. Natsu guessed that they were Raiders judging by how they looked. Piercings and tattoos covered their bodies, their clothing torn. The only thing that actually caught Natsu's eye was the pitch black leather coat which the leader of the group, Natsu presumed, wore.

The three men entered the saloon and started looking around, manic grins present on their faces, "Haru? Show yourself, little Haru!" The black coat wearing man said while he moved a stray bang of his brown hair away from his face. The white haired man Natsu noticed before groaned loudly, causing the brown haired Raider to glance at his direction, "Ah! Haru! How's it goin' buddy?" He asked in an almost sing-song voice as he sat at the same table that the white haired man sat.

"Neeran." Haru answered with a scowl, "To what do I owe this displeasure?"

The brown haired man who was now known as Neeran visibly pouted before his grin returned as the other two Raiders he brought with him took their places behind Haru, "Don't be like that, little Haru." The black coat wearing man said with a cheery voice before his expression suddenly darkened, "You know perfectly well why we're here, you fuckin' chickenshit prick."

Natsu sweatdropped at the speed of which Neeran's mood suddenly changed. The pinkette's eyes narrowed when the two Raiders standing behind Haru suddenly grabbed the hair on the back of his head and slammed his face against the table.

"Where in this fuckin' piece of crap waste of space you call a town did you put our money?!" Neeran growled as he grabbed the white haired man's hair and smashed his head against the table once more, causing the man to groan in pain before he leaned up and chuckled humorlessly with a bloody nose.

"Money? What money? I've been broke ever since two months ago. What kind of money would you possibly get from me?" Haru muttered with a bloody grin, causing the brown haired man to snarl in his direction.

"You motherfucker!" He shouted as he smashed Haru's head against the table once more while one of the other Raiders removed the gun holstered on his leg, "Stop bullshittin' me!"

The pink haired ex-Ryuukishi sighed tiredly before he turned to the slightly worried bluenettes sitting together with him, "Juvia, Wendy, go out back and head towards the car. Get back here with it as soon as you can. I can't leave this guy to those lowlifes." Natsu said with a serious expression directed towards the girls.

"But Natsu, your condition…" Juvia said under her breath to which the pinkette only shook his head as a response.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Besides," He said as he raised his new and improved appendage, "I have an advantage." He said with a sincere smile as he stood up, "Now go." He instructed and the girls did as they were told. Both Juvia and Wendy made for the back exit of the saloon and grabbed the cart full of mech parts before they ran to where Natsu parked the car as fast as they could.

"Had enough?" Neeran growled out as he raised Haru's head again, the latter responding by spitting blood into the brown haired man's face, "You piece of-"

"Hey." Natsu spoke up from behind Neeran as he grasped the raider's shoulder.

"Huh? Keep walkin' buddy." The raider growled at the sight of the pinkette while he only shook his head in response.

"I see you got Haru… the bastard owes me a shitload of money too so I suppose I could join in on the fun?" The ex-Ryuukishi asked with a mock smile and the brown haired raider stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

"What the fuck are you babbling on about?" Neeran seethed, which gave Natsu a chance to make eye-contact with Haru. Natsu motioned to the knife in Haru's jacket's pocket with his eyes and nodded. The white haired man understood what the pinkette had planned and nodded back in affirmation, "Get the fuck out of here before I-"

"Now!" Natsu shouted as he pushed Neeran to the side, causing him to fall over on his back before he punched one of the raiders holding Haru's arms square in the face. The white haired man regained control of his appendage and almost instantly grasped for the blade in his jacket's inner pocket and took it out. He used the confusion to elbow the other raider in the face before pointing a knife at his throat.

"Well, this seems fun. Thanks, whoever you are." Haru said while watching Natsu from the corner of his eyes.

"Don't thank me yet." The pink haired man warned as he watched Neeran get back up on his feet.

"You assholes!" The brown haired raider shouted as he drew a gun from his coat's inner pocket and aimed it straight at Natsu. The pinkette reacted almost instantaneously and kicked a table down to provide a makeshift cover for him and Haru as Neeran pulled the trigger multiple times. Gritting his teeth, Natsu pushed the table forward, swiftly closing the distance between him and Neeran before he jumped out of the cover and planted a fist in the raider's face with his metallic appendage, sending the man flying through the saloon's doors outside.

He skidded along the ground before righting himself and shaking his head. The impact he felt from Natsu's punch almost knocked him out then and there. He felt extremely dizzy and could barely remain on his feet. Neeran saw his gun which he dropped when he flew through the building's doors and made to run to grasp his weapon but was too late when a foot kept the gun in place. Neeran glanced up and saw Natsu's darkened face.

"That's a nice coat you have there."

Meanwhile, Haru struggled inside the saloon with the two raiders that jumped him, both of which drew large knives from within their jackets. The white haired man attempted to keep some distance between him and the two crazed men, trying his best to avoid a confrontation with both of them at the same time. One of them rushed at Haru and swung his blade forward. The white haired man reacted almost instantly and parried the blow before sending a kick to the raider's abdomen, making him fly a few feet across the saloon.

A wild roar alerted Haru to the presence of the second raider who opened up with a stab to his chest, but Haru was faster. Using the raider's momentum, the white haired man kicked at his enemy's knee, causing him to stagger momentarily. Finding this to be a great opportunity to lessen the raiders' numbers, Haru opened with his own stab that went right through the man's heart, killing him on the spot.

After witnessing the death of his comrade, the remaining raider roared manically and blindly rushed at the other. He was just begging to die. Haru used the many openings the man showed and grabbed his arm before flinging him over his shoulder, sending him flying through the same door that Neeran used to abruptly exit the building.

Looking around and shaking his head at the sight of all the… property damage - or so it was so famed to be called - they caused, the white haired man glanced apologetically at the bartender who was glaring daggers at them. Chuckling rather sheepishly, Haru looked for something in his pockets before throwing a small bright diamond towards the man, "Here, this should take care of all of this. Keep the rest, I rather fancy the beer here." The man said with a smile before exiting the building.

Haru watched bemusedly at the pink haired man who was trying out Neeran's coat, "Yeah, this should do just perfect. Thanks!" Natsu said with a bright smile directed at the glaring man.

"You are going to pay for this… Both of you!" He shouted, resulting in the pinkette rolling his eyes at the man's antics. Natsu abruptly kicked the man's face, causing him to fly back a few feet, groaning as his body skidded to a halt.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Get the hell out of here." The ex-Ryuukishi growled in annoyance, his eyes narrowing dangerously at Neeran who growled back before dragging the other raider around the corner.

"Uhh, yeah, so thanks, whoever you are. The name's Haru." The white haired man spoke with a small smile as he extended his arm.

"Don't mention it. Natsu." The pinkette smiled back as he grasped Haru's arm and shook it in greeting.

"Why'd you help me anyway? I don't see many people around who'd go out of their way to help a stranger, even more so if he's involved with raiders."

Natsu simply shrugged at the question, "Honestly? I don't even know. I guess it was because-" The pink haired man's explanation was abruptly interrupted when both of them heard a car engine suddenly roaring to life. Glancing to the side, both of their faces fell when they saw a four-wheeler headed their way, a maniacally grinning Neeran sitting in the passenger seat, glaring at them.

"Well, fuck."


End file.
